China Mobile is taking advantage of 4G, with a record 837.038 million mobile subscribers reported at the end of June. Fixed-line broadband also came in with a record number, helping the telecom giant keep it’s No. 1 spot as the world’s largest.
The South China Morning Post reported that the company wants to have 500 million 4G subscribers by next year. In order to help that goal along, Li Huidi, vice president of China Mobile, said that the company plans to build 300,000 4G base stations by the end of 2016.
Li told the Morning Post that the company sold more than 256 million 4G smartphones last year. Additionally, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom plan to release their half-year earnings reports this week. The “big three,” according to the Morning Post, announced in July a separate five-year lease deal for telecommunications towers “and related assets from China Tower Corp, the infrastructure-sharing joint venture they formed two years ago, which is expected to provide a boost to their earnings.”
China Mobile is predicted to have strong reported growth, with experts estimating an 8.4 percent increase in second quarter net profit, up from 33.4 billion yuan in the same quarter last year, according to the Morning Post. Revenue is predicted to be up to 164.9 billion yuan from 157.7 billion yuan at the same point last year.
Jefferies equity analyst Elaine Lai said in a report to the Morning Post, “that the fixed-line subscribers added by China Mobile in June was the highest monthly number recorded in the domestic telecommunications sector in the past five years.”
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