China Telecom reported net profit for 2018 up 13.9 percent to CNY 21.2 billion, supported by its strong growth in the mobile market. Revenues rose 3.0 percent to CNY 377.1 billion, and EBITDA increased 2.0 percent to CNY 104.2 billion, for a slight fall in the margin to 29.7 percent.
Capital expenditure declined for a third year in a row, down 15.5 percent to CNY 74.9 billion, helping free cash flow grow to CNY 22.5 billion. The operator said it will increase the dividend by 8.7 percent to HKD 0.125 per share.
China Telecom added over 53 million new mobile subscribers in 2018, increasing its base by more than a fifth to 303 million. Eighty percent of its customers users 4G services. China Telecom said it took 44 percent of market net additions last year and increased its market share to 19.6 percent.
The fixed broadband base also grew by 12.26 million customers in 2018, for a total of 145.79 million, including 140.66 million on FTTH and 66 percent taking speeds of 100 Mbps or higher. Wireline service revenues amounted to CNY 182.7 billion, representing an increase of 3.1 percent from 2017. China Telecom said it also had over 100 million IPTV customers at year-end and more than 43 million customers using its online payment service BestPay.
Service revenue growth was the strongest in mobile, up 9.1 percent to CNY 167.8 billion thanks to demand for data services. Total handset data traffic increased nearly three-fold, while 4G customers averaged 5.5 GB each. Revenue from smartphone internet services grew by 22.4 percent year-on-year.
