China Mobile looks set to cap year with 66 million 4G subscribers
China Mobile is leaving behind rivals China Unicom and China Telecom in their race to sign up more high-value 4G network customers on the mainland.
Driven by its steady domestic market expansion, China Mobile is leaving behind rivals China Unicom and China Telecom in their race to sign up more high-value 4G network customers on the mainland.
China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless network operator by subscribers, widened its lead over its two competitors in August, after it reported on Monday a record-high 9.1 million new 4G subscribers last month.
The Hong Kong-listed company, which had 796.035 million total subscribers as of August 31, surpassed its previous monthly record 4G subscriber net additions of 6.5 million in July and 5.8 million in June.
“Extrapolating the current monthly run-rate would result in [China Mobile] achieving 66 million 4G subscribers by the end of the year,” said Bernstein Research senior analyst Chris Lane, lead author of a new monthly tracker report.
Extrapolating the current monthly run-rate would result in [China Mobile] achieving 66 million 4G subscribers by the end of the year
That number would be well above the operator’s previously announced target of 50 million 4G subscribers this year. Hitting that 66-million mark would show how China Mobile retains an advantage in network coverage, even while it cuts handset subsidies by 21 billion yuan this year. Its combined subsidies and selling expenses last year reached 118.1 billion yuan.
The operator has so far been on track with its planned rollout of 500,000 4G base stations in about 350 cities nationwide, but is determined to implement about 700,000 4G base stations and cover more cities by year’s end.
Anand Ramachandran, the head of telecommunications, internet and media equity research for Asia, excluding Japan, at Barclays Research, said in a report that China Mobile sees “rapidly falling 4G handset prices as boding well for [more] subscribers migrating to 4G” services.
Data from the China Academy of Telecommunications Research, a body under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, show that 58 new 4G smartphone models were released in August, while 11.6 million total 4G handsets were shipped across the mainland the same month.
There may be a boost to China Mobile later this year, when Apple’s new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus 4G handsets become available on the mainland, the world’s biggest smartphone market. Apple has not set a timetable for that release because as it is yet to complete the licensing process with regulators.
Both Unicom and China Telecom do not provide a separate breakdown of their 4G subscribers. Each operator combines 3G and 4G user numbers.
China Telecom returned to positive year-on-year growth last month as it added 1.8 million new 3G and 4G subscribers, up from 1.45 million in July.
In contrast, Unicom signed up 1.3 million new 3G and 4G users last month, down from 2.5 million in July and 3 million in June. “This was the poorest showing for Unicom all year,” Lane said.
He indicated that many of the mainland’s dual subscriber identity module subscribers – owning SIMs from China Mobile and either Unicom or China Telecom, for faster 3G access – “may be moving to a single SIM relationship with China Mobile for 4G”.
Ramachandran pointed out that Unicom’s new 4G network trial expansion to 40 mainland cities would see “better subscriber-addition momentum in September and beyond”. The same rosy prospect is expected for China Telecom, which also got the green light from regulators to expand its new 4G network trials to 40 cities.
The three mainland operators’ total 2G, 3G and 4G mobile subscribers reached 1.273 billion at the end of last month.
