China Unicom ended September with 262.074 million mobile billing subscribers, registering a net addition of 9.757 million in the first nine months of 2016. The number of 4G subscribers reached 88.906 million, representing a net addition of 44.750 million in the 9-month period. For September alone, the net addition of 4G subscribers amounted to 6.054 million. Mobile billing subscriber ARPU was CNY 47.
During the first three quarters of 2016, mobile service revenue turned around its decline and grew by 0.1 percent year-on-year, which showed ongoing improvement from the decline of 0.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year. In the first three quarters of 2016, the Group’s service revenue reached CNY 182.7 billion, up by 1.7 percent year-on-year.
In the first three quarters of 2016, the company’s profit reached CNY 1.58 billion, down by 80.6 percent year-on-year. However, the figure represents a significant improvement from the loss of CNY 3.36 billion in the second half of last year, China Unicom said.
The number of fixed-line broadband subscribers reached 75 million at end-September, representing a net addition of 2.7 million during the 9-month period. Fixed-line service revenue was CNY 71.9 billion, up by 3.9 percent year-on-year. EBITDA for the period was CNY 61.7 billion, down by 16.8 percent year-on-year. EBITDA as a percentage of service revenue was 33.8 percent at end-September.
