China's operators' semi-annual report: 5G package users close to 500 million

On August 19, China Unicom announced its first-half financial report, and now the semi-annual reports of the three major telecom operators have all been released.

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According to the financial report, as of the end of June, the number of China Telecom's 5G package users reached 131 million, with a penetration rate of 36.2%; China Mobile had 251 million users, with a net increase of 86 million users in the first half of the year; China Unicom had 113 million users, with a penetration rate of 36.5%.

The number of users of 5G featured applications has increased rapidly, and users who upgraded to 5G have maintained good value growth. The ARPU (average revenue per user) of mobile users has stopped falling and continued to rise. In the first half of the year, the ARPU of China Telecom's mobile users reached 45.7 yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 2.9%, and the growth rate was further increased compared with the first quarter; China Mobile's mobile user ARPU was 52.2 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%, reversing the downward trend since 2018; China Unicom's mobile user ARPU reached 44.4 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%.

Benefiting from the accelerated digital transformation of China's economy and society, the performance of the three major telecom operators in the first half of the year has improved. China Telecom's operating income in the first half of the year was 219.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%; net profit was 17.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.2%, and after excluding the one-time after-tax gain from the sale of subsidiaries, it increased by 17.0% year-on-year.

China Mobile's operating revenue in the first half of the year was 443.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%; profit attributable to shareholders was 59.1 billion yuan, and earnings per share was 2.89 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.0%.

China Unicom's operating revenue in the first half of the year reached RMB 164.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%; the total profit in the first half of the year exceeded 10 billion for the first time in recent years, reaching RMB 11.2 billion; the net profit attributable to the parent company reached RMB 4.03 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.6%.

The construction of 5G networks is also proceeding as planned. In the first half of 2021, China Telecom and China Unicom jointly built and shared, and opened 80,000 new 5G base stations. The two parties have opened more than 460,000 5G base stations in total, and have achieved dual leadership in first-tier city coverage and network perception. China Mobile's 5G-related investment totaled 50.2 billion yuan. As of the end of June, a total of 501,000 5G base stations had been opened, providing 5G services to urban areas above prefecture-level cities, some county towns and key areas across the country.