As a much anticipated deal with Apple looms, China Telecom is gearing up to accelerate development of its mobile internet services after posting solid earnings growth in the first nine months of the year.
The mainland's biggest fixed-line network operator yesterday said its net profit for the period up to last month rose 10.1 per cent to 13.86 billion yuan (HK$16.92 billion), from 12.59 billion yuan a year earlier, on steady mobile subscriber growth and strong adoption of broadband internet and data services.
The number of mobile subscribers at the end of last month was 116.95 million, including 28.43 million 3G users. Fixed-line broadband subscribers totalled 73.69 million, a net addition of 10.21 million users during the period.
Revenue, excluding the amortisation of upfront connection fees, grew 11.8 per cent to 182.36 billion yuan from 163.16 billion yuan.
'The company's operation was on track as planned for the first three quarters of the year,' chairman Wang Xiaochu said.
Like those of larger mainland rivals China Mobile and China Unicom, China Telecom's third-quarter profit missed analysts' estimates because of intense competition for high-value 3G subscribers.