China Mobile, the world's largest wireless network operator, will build up its infrastructure to boost business on the mainland after reporting steady growth in the first quarter.
The carrier yesterday said its unaudited results for the quarter to March showed a 5.4 per cent increase in net profit to 26.86 billion yuan (HK$31.98 billion), from 25.48 billion yuan a year earlier, on the back of solid subscriber growth and greater adoption of so-called value-added services.
It added 16.82 million new subscribers last quarter, lifting its total user base to 600.84 million from 584.02 million the previous year. Total revenue rose 8.3 per cent to 118.17 billion yuan from 109.09 billion yuan a year ago.
The earnings before interest, tax and depreciation, or ebitda - a measurement of a company's operating profitability - 'was maintained at an industry leading level of 49.1 per cent', China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The number of value-added business users who subscribe to lucrative mobile internet access and other data offerings, climbed to 549.25 million last quarter from 523.39 million a year earlier to help bolster the operator's revenue.
Other value-added services, such as text and multimedia messaging and wireless music, also grew and the volume of wireless music service users last quarter swelled to 476.44 million from 460.20 million the previous year.
