China Mobile reported first-quarter operating revenue of CNY 184 billion, which represents an increase of 3.7 percent year-on-year. Revenue from telecommunications services amounted to CNY 160.9 billion, up by 6.1 percent from the first quarter of 2016. EBITDA amounted to CNY 67.1 billion, up by 3 percent over the year-earlier period, while profit reached CNY 24.8 billion, increasing 3.7 percent year-on-year.
China Mobile ended March with 856 million total mobile customers, with mobile ARPU up 1.6 percent year-on-year to CNY 58.5. The number of 4G customers was 568 million, representing a net increase of 33.04 million for the first quarter. The operator also said its data traffic business maintained rapid growth, with handset data traffic recording a 101 percent increase year-on-year and handset DOU exceeding 1,000MB. Total voice usage fell 7 percent compared to the same quarter of 2016.
The total number of wireline broadband customers stood at 85.68 million at 31 March, representing a net increase of 8.06 million for the first quarter. ARPU of wireline broadband customers steadily trended up to CNY 32.6.
In the first quarter of 2017, the Group’s telecommunications services revenue increased by 6.1 percent year-on-year to CNY 160.9 billion. Due primarily to the expanded scale of handset sales from open channels, sales of terminals fell, and revenue from the sales of products went down by 10.7 percent year-on-year to CNY 23.1 billion.
