Marbridge Daily

China Mobile Adds 27 Mln 5G Subscribers in September 2021

China Mobile, 10/20/21

China Mobile (0941.HK) has announced its subscriber totals for the month of September 2021, with a net increase of 4.61 mln mobile subscribers, raising the telecom operator's total mobile user base to 955.71 mln. Of this total, 815.74 mln were 4G subscribers and 331.22 mln were 5G package customers, representing net increases of 4.65 mln and 27.08 mln, respectively, compared to the previous month. Of the total 5G package customers, approximately 160 mln were 5G network users.

China Mobile defines 5G package customers as mobile customers who have subscribed to 5G tariff plans. Customers sharing 5G tariff plans without subscription are not included in the operator's 5G subscriber totals. China Mobile defines 5G network customers as "mobile customers who have used the 5G network in the current month and stayed on the network at the end of the month" (in contrast to those 5G package subscribers who are simply taking advantage of attractive 5G tariff plans, but not actually using the 5G network.)

China Mobile continued to foster its position in broadband services, TV services and smart home services, focusing on quality, content and applications, correspondingly. It continued to grow its "Home" market in terms of both business scale and revenue. China Mobile added 4.16 mln new fixed-line broadband subscribers (registered accounts) in September, increasing its total fixed-line broadband user base to 235.35 mln. This figure represents a net gain of 25.03 mln for the first three quarters of the year, with 21.64 mln of this increase comprised of household broadband customers. For the first three quarters of the year, fixed-line broadband ARPU increased by 7.3% year-on-year to RMB 34.8 and household broadband blended ARPU increased by 10.7% year-on-year to RMB 39.8.

China Mobile's “Business” market demonstrated strong growth momentum following the company's ongoing efforts to drive the integrated development of “Cloud + Network + DICT”. For the first three quarters of the year, China Mobile’s DICT (data, information and communications technology) revenue reached RMB 48.9 bln, maintaining very rapid growth.

China Mobile's September 2021 Subscriber Totals (Unit: Mln)

China Mobile also reported that during the first three quarters of the year, the company's handset data traffic increased by 39.1% year-on-year to 90.8 bln GB with handset data DOU exceeding 12GB. Mobile ARPU increased by 2.6% year-on-year to RMB 50.1 for the first three quarters of the year.

Keywords: wireless China Mobile ARPU fixed-line broadband telecom 4G mobile subscribers 5G broadband subscribers 0941.HK