Marbridge Daily

China Telcos Announce November 2011 Subscriber Totals

Marbridge Consulting, 12/20/11

China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for November 2011.

November saw the net addition of 12.13 mln new mobile subscribers. China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) added 5.43 mln new mobile subscribers, pushing the operator's total mobile user base to 644.32 mln, of which a total of 48.01 mln subscribers used China Mobile's TD-SCDMA terminals during the month. China Mobile added 2.68 mln new TD-SCDMA subscribers in November.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) added 3.60 mln new mobile subscribers, bringing its total to 195.97 mln. Of the new mobile subs added, 0.21 mln were GSM subscribers, bringing China Unicom's total GSM user base to 159.44 mln, and 3.38 mln were WCDMA subscribers, pushing the company's total WCDMA user base to 36.53 mln subscribers.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) added 3.10 mln CDMA subs, taking its total to 123.39 mln, of which 33.35 mln were CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers. China Telecom added 2.16 mln new CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers in November.

Of the combined total of 117.89 mln 3G subs, China Mobile holds 40.7%, China Unicom 31.0%, and China Telecom 28.3%. Of total new mobile subs added in November, China Mobile took 44.77%, dropping its share of China's total mobile user base to 66.86%. China Unicom's share of the total mobile user base increased for the 10th straight month, rising from 20.22% at the end of October to 20.34% at the end of November, while China Telecom's share increased for the 35th straight month, rising from 12.64% at the end of October to 12.80% at the end of November.

China Telecom lost 440,000 fixed-line subs, reducing its total to 169.96 mln, and China Unicom lost 593,000 fixed-line subs, dropping its total to 93.70 mln.

China Telecom added 970,000 new broadband subscribers to reach 75.73 mln, and China Unicom added 484,000 new broadband subs to reach 55.53 mln.

Keywords: national statistics market size growth rate China Telecom China Mobile China Unicom fixed-line mobile subscribers 3G broadband subscribers CDMA GSM CHL TD-SCDMA WCDMA 0728.HK 0762.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH CHA CHU CDMA2000 EV-DO fixed-line subscribers market share