The three major telecom operators earned 387 million yuan a day in 2020

On March 25, China Mobile released its 2020 performance report. So far, the 2020 annual reports of the three major telecom operators have been released. In 2020, the overall operating performance of the three major operators remained stable, with a total revenue of about 1.47 trillion yuan and a total net profit of 141.2 billion yuan, an average daily profit of about 387 million yuan. The migration of mobile users from 4G to 5G has significantly improved the personal market business of the three major operators.

As of the end of 2020, the three major operators have invested a total of 175.7 billion yuan in 5G construction, built 770,000 5G base stations, and the number of 5G package users has exceeded 300 million; 2021 will still be the peak period of 5G investment and construction for the three major operators. The capital expenditure budget of the three major operators has reached a total of 340.6 billion yuan, of which 184.7 billion yuan was invested in 5G, a year-on-year increase of 5%.

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Total revenue is approximately RMB 1.47 trillion

The financial report shows that China Mobile's operating revenue in 2020 was 768.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.0%. Among them, communication service revenue reached 695.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%; profit attributable to shareholders reached 107.8 billion yuan, an increase of 1.1%. China Mobile said that in 2020, the proportion of new business revenue will further increase, and the revenue structure will be further optimized, adding strong momentum for continued growth in the future.

In 2020, China Telecom's revenue was 393.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Among them, service revenue was 373.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%; profit attributable to shareholders was 20.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.6%. The total network cloud business revenue was 13.8 billion yuan, and it continued to rank among the top in the domestic public cloud market share.

China Unicom's operating revenue in 2020 reached 303.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%. Among them, service revenue was 275.8 billion yuan, up 4.3% year-on-year; profit attributable to shareholders was 12.5 billion yuan, up 10.3%. The company seized the opportunities of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, and its industrial Internet revenue reached 42.7 billion yuan in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 30%.

The three major telecom operators had a total revenue of approximately 1.47 trillion yuan in 2020, with a total net profit of 141.2 billion yuan, with an average daily profit of approximately 387 million yuan.

The number of 5G package users has exceeded 300 million

The mobile user ARPU of the three major telecom operators has improved.

China Mobile introduced that as of the end of December 2020, the company had 942 million mobile users. Among them, 5G package customers reached 165 million, a net increase of 162 million, maintaining the industry's leading position. ARPU was 47.4 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.0 percentage points.

As of the end of December 2020, China Telecom's mobile users reached 351 million, with a net increase of 15.45 million; the number of 5G package users reached 86.5 million, with a penetration rate of 24.6%, and the mobile user ARPU reached 44.1 yuan, and the decline continued to narrow.

As of the end of December 2020, China Unicom's 5G package users reached 70.83 million, with a 5G package user penetration rate of 23%. Mobile user ARPU reached 42.1 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%; the average monthly data traffic of mobile users reached 9.7GB.

Overall, the number of 5G package users of the three major telecom operators has exceeded 300 million, reaching 322 million. China Mobile proposed that the number of 5G network customers will reach 200 million in 2021, and strive to achieve a stabilization and recovery of mobile ARPU. China Telecom plans to add 80 million 5G users and 12 million mobile users in 2021.

The upgrade of users from 4G to 5G has a significant effect on the increase of mobile business ARPU. China Telecom executives introduced in the performance briefing that the ARPU of 5G users in 2020 reached 65.6 yuan, 20 yuan higher than the overall ARPU value of mobile users of 44.1 yuan. It is expected that the penetration rate of 5G users will accelerate in 2021, and the revenue growth momentum will continue. China Unicom said that the company's 5G user ARPU in 2020 will be around 70 yuan, and the overall upgrade from 4G to 5G will increase ARPU by more than 10%.

Capital expenditure this year reached 340.6 billion yuan

On March 25, Yang Jie, chairman of China Mobile, introduced at the company's 2020 performance briefing that China Mobile plans to spend 183.6 billion yuan in capital expenditures in 2021, slightly higher than the 180.6 billion yuan in capital expenditures in 2020. Among them, the planned 5G capital expenditure in 2021 is 110 billion yuan, which is also higher than the 102.5 billion yuan investment level in 2020.

Yang Jie said that it is planned to build about 120,000 new 2.6GHz base stations in 2021; it is planned to jointly purchase more than 400,000 700MHz base stations with China Radio and Television, which will be completed and put into operation between 2021 and 2022.

In 2021, China Unicom plans to maintain capital expenditures at around 70 billion yuan, of which 5G investment is about 35 billion yuan. It is expected that 5G capital expenditures will begin to decline after 2022. In 2020, China Unicom's capital expenditures reached 67.6 billion yuan, lower than the original budget of 70 billion yuan. Among them, capital expenditures for 5G reached 34 billion yuan.

China Telecom said that the company plans to spend 87 billion yuan in capital expenditure in 2021, an increase of 2.6% from 84.8 billion yuan in 2020. Among them, 5G investment in 2021 is about 39.7 billion yuan, an increase of 1.3% from 39.2 billion yuan in 2020. As of the end of 2020, the company has about 380,000 available 5G base stations, and plans to reach 700,000 available 5G base stations by the end of 2021.

Overall, the three major operators plan to spend 340.6 billion yuan in capital in 2021, of which 184.7 billion yuan will be invested in 5G.

It is worth noting that the network operation and support-related expenses of the three major operators increased significantly in 2020, and the issue of electricity costs for 5G base stations has become a focus of investors' attention.

At the performance briefing, Li Huidi, deputy general manager of China Mobile, said in an interview with a reporter from China Securities Journal that the company will continue to strive for preferential electricity tariffs, continue to carry out refined management and control of network electricity tariffs, and promote the transformation of indirect power supply to direct power supply. At the same time, it will strengthen the application of intelligent technology. For example, when the business is not busy, the base station will be put into deep sleep to further save electricity costs and keep the electricity costs at a reasonable growth level.

China Unicom's electricity costs in 2020 increased by 5%, a relatively stable growth. The company said that it adjusted old equipment and eliminated backward production capacity, thus saving electricity costs; purchased more new and more energy-saving equipment; and built and shared with China Telecom, which greatly reduced electricity consumption.

It is reported that China Unicom and China Telecom have jointly built and shared 5G base stations, saving a total of more than 76 billion yuan in investment, and can save considerable costs such as tower usage fees, electricity bills and network maintenance fees.