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SCMP Reporter

The mainland's leading mobile phone operator, China Mobile, has lost ground to rival China Unicom.

The company's operational figures for last month show its subscriber base increased by 28.8 per cent in the first half of the year, compared with China Unicom's 56.6 per cent increase for the same period.

Together with its parent company, China Mobile gave up a 4.3 per cent share of the market to Unicom.

At the end of last year, China Mobile had a 78 per cent share of the market. By the end of last month, its market share had been whittled down to 73.7 per cent.

Shares in China Mobile fell 1.98 per cent after the release of the disappointing figures.

The counter dipped 70 HK cents to finish at HK$34.60, compared with a five HK cent rise in China Unicom's shares.

China Mobile lost 10.17 per cent of its value over the month.

China Unicom, with its strong subscriber growth rate, lost only 0.39 per cent of its value.

According to the company's latest operational data, at the end of last month China Mobile had 58.17 million subscribers to its 13 provincial operations.

At the end of last year it had 45.13 million subscribers.

Meanwhile, China Unicom has reported that the number of subscribers to its 12 provincial networks had increased 56.6 per cent to reach 20 million at the end of the first half.

When combined with its parent's operations, China Unicom group's subscriber base at the end of June was 30.7 million - a 63.2 per cent increase from the start of the year.

Last week China's telecoms regulator, the Ministry of Information Industry, announced that the country's mobile-user base grew 36.9 per cent in the first half to 116.8 million.

The China Mobile data showed the company's subscriber growth rate was lower than the sector's average.

'Both China Unicom and its parent Unicom Group are taking market share from China Mobile group,' said Wallace Cheung, telecoms analyst at DBS Equity Research.

'This will boost the quality of 19 provincial cellular assets for future injection into China Unicom.'

China Unicom plans to acquire the remaining 19 provincial networks from its parent this year.



China Mobile loses ground as rival Unicom grabs bigger market share