China Mobile eyes data goldmine
China Mobile, the world's largest wireless operator by subscriber numbers, says its future growth lies in data and mobile internet services.
Wang Jianzhou, chairman of the company which had 627.6 million subscribers as of August 31, said yesterday that both revenue and profit growth would slow because of market saturation and falling prices, but the sector still had potential.
'So far, the mobile phone penetration rate in China is about 80 per cent. But I think everyone will have at least one mobile phone,' he said. 'We will have 100 per cent penetration in three years.'
Wang said this meant the nation's three telecommunications operators would have about 100 million new subscribers every year within the next three years.
Wang said offering data services - such as text messaging and mobile internet - would still give operators a boost even though people would likely make fewer calls or turn to free voice-calling services like Skype.
Average revenue per user fell over the past 10 years, but some operators recently managed to reverse the trend. 'The main reason is data [services],' he said.
Wang sees another challenge, however, in the changing telecommunications ecosystem. 'In the past, this industry has always been operator-centred,' he said.
But now, vendors and internet providers would like to be leaders in the industry's value chain, Wang said, citing Apple as an example.
So far, the Beijing-based company is not Apple's carrier partner in China because Apple's highly successful iPhone does not work on China Mobile's mainland-backed networks.
'We [have an] agreement with Apple. We are waiting for the TD-LTE [time-division long-term evolution] technology-based iPhone,' Wang said, referring to the new high-speed 4G mainland-backed standard for networks. He said there was no time frame for the cellphone's launch yet.
As of September, China Mobile had 9.5 million iPhone users who bought the handset in the market then registered it with China Mobile. 'Every month, the iPhone brought to us more than one million [subscribers],' Wang said.
Even though Apple does not have a TD-LTE-based unit, iPhones can still be used on China Mobile's 2.5G network.
917m
The estimated number of mobile-phone subscribers in China as of July this year, the highest in the world
