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China's Mobile Subscriber Growth Remains Sluggish in June 2019

Marbridge Consulting, 7/22/19

The listed arms of China's three main telecom operators have announced their subscriber totals for the month of June 2019, including a combined net addition of 5.01 mln mobile subscribers in China to reach a total mobile subscriber base of almost 1.583 bln. The June figure is roughly 40% lower than the average monthly net addition of mobile subs in the preceding 12 months (i.e. June 2018 to May 2019), which was approximately 8.37 mln, and over 58% lower than the June 2018 net addition of 11.97 mln.

During the month of June 2019, China's three main operators reported a combined net addition of 11.84 mln 4G subscribers (most of which were simply existing 2G or 3G subs who upgraded to 4G) to reach a combined 4G subscriber base of approximately 1.239 bln. 4G penetration among mobile subscribers hit approximately 78.3%.

China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) reported a net addition of 2.97 mln new mobile subscribers, pushing the telecom operator's total mobile user base to 935.05 mln. Of the total, 733.78 mln subscribers used its 4G network during the month. China Mobile saw a net gain of 6.19 mln LTE subs in June. China Mobile added 2.12 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in June, increasing its total fixed-line broadband user base to 174.89 mln.

China Unicom (NYSE: CHU; 0762.HK; 600050.SH) reported a net addition of just 24,000 mobile billing subscribers to reach a total mobile billing user base of 324.35 mln. Of the total, 238.94 mln were 4G subscribers, with a net addition of 3.03 mln LTE subs during the month. China Unicom lost 0.15 mln fixed-line telephone subscribers in June, dropping its total to 54.32 mln. The operator added 0.25 mln fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in June, increasing its total to 83.41 mln.

China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) saw a net increase of 2.02 mln mobile subscribers in June, raising its total to 323.48 mln, of which 266.14 mln were 4G terminal users, with a net increase of 2.62 mln 4G terminal users in June. China Telecom lost 0.51 mln fixed-line telephone subs in June, reducing its total to 113.57 mln. China Telecom gained 0.86 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) to reach 150.18 mln (if also including the fixed-line broadband subscribers of China Telecom's (i.e. China Telecom Corporation Limited's) parent company, China Telecommunications Corporation ("CTC"), as of the end of June 2019, the aggregate number of fixed-line broadband subscribers of China Telecom and CTC was 177 mln.

China Mobile's share of China's total mobile subscriber base as of the end of June 2019 remained unchanged from its May 2019 share of 59.07%, but was down from 60.82% at the end of June 2018. China Unicom's share took another step backward to 20.49%, compared to 20.55% at the end of May 2019 and 20.28% at the end of June 2018, and China Telecom's share grew to 20.44%, up from 20.37% at the end of May 2019 and 18.91% at the end of June 2018.

Mobile Subscriber Stats for China's Main Three Carriers (Unit: Mln)

OperatorJune 2019
Net Add
June 2019
Month-end Total
% of Combined
Installed Sub Base
% of Combined
Installed 4G Sub Base
China Mobile2.97935.0559.07%
4G Subs6.19733.7859.23%
China Unicom0.02324.3520.49%
4G Subs3.03238.9419.29%
China Telecom2.02323.4820.44%
4G Subs2.62266.1421.48%

Keywords: wireless China Telecom China Mobile China Unicom fixed-line broadband penetration telecom 4G mobile subscribers 3G broadband subscribers LTE CHL 0728.HK 0762.HK 0941.HK 600050.SH CHA CHU fixed-line subscribers market share

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The information contained in this newsletter is based upon sources that Marbridge Consulting believes to be reliable, and we have made every effort to translate the original articles or article excerpts as faithfully as possible. However, Marbridge Consulting makes no warranty of and assumes no legal responsibility for the accuracy of either the original source material or the English language translations.

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