China Mobile posts H1 profit jump

China Mobile, the world’s biggest mobile carrier by customer base, yesterday reported a better-than-expected first half net profit of 65.6 billion yuan (US$9.6 billion), up 4.7 percent year on year and fueled by growth in 4G  users and data services.

Analysts had forecast a net profit of 64.2 billion yuan. Operating revenue rose to 391.8 billion yuan, compared with 388.9 billion a year earlier. 

By end-June, China Mobile had more than 900 million subscribers, adding 18.6 million in the first six months. The number of 4G users increased 27.2 million to 680 million — accounting for three quarters of all the company's subscribers.

The latest data further cements China Mobile as the dominant player, ahead of rivals China Unicom and China Telecom.

The carrier is “actively preparing and testing” 5G technologies in China, which offer 20 to 50 times faster mobile Internet access than existing 4G, said Shang Bing, chairman of China Mobile.

He added increasing customer and data traffic market shares will continue to be the focus this year, and it will strengthen the cooperation with proven Internet companies to market content-based data products, in order to further boost data traffic revenue.