New | China Mobile 4G lead shores up its pool of high-value subscribers

China Mobile, the world's largest wireless network operator, is winning back high-value customers on the mainland as its 4G infrastructure expansion continues nationwide.

The company said it added a record 19 million 4G subscribers last month to increase its 4G base to 90 million, a year into its massive roll-out of a network built on the indigenously developed standard called time-division long-term evolution (TD-LTE).

"We believe its fourth-quarter results will show that China Mobile gained revenue share for the first time since the mainland's [most recent] telecommunications industry reorganisation," Bernstein Research senior analyst Chris Lane said.

That restructuring in 2008 paved the way for the central government to kick-start infrastructure upgrades in the industry after it issued 3G licences to three network operators: China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.

"Previously, many of the mainland's high-value subscribers migrated to Unicom, and to a lesser extent China Telecom, to access better smartphones and faster data usage," Lane said. "China Mobile now has the advantage because of its 4G network."

Unicom and China Telecom were Apple's first partner-carriers on the mainland for the iPhone because their 3G networks supported the popular smartphone.