August of the three major operators: 5G is accelerating, and China Mobile's fixed-line broadband users have exceeded 200 million

2020 was a difficult year, but it went by very quickly. Autumn has arrived and the weather has turned cooler, but operators are still enthusiastic about building 5G. As of yesterday, the operating data of the three major operators in August were all released: China Mobile and China Telecom alone have more than 150 million 5G package users, while China Unicom has not yet announced the number of 5G users.

In addition, the number of China Mobile's fixed-line broadband users has exceeded 200 million, and the number of China Unicom's fixed-line broadband users has also stopped falling and rebounded. Faced with the growth of China Mobile and Unicom, China Telecom is under pressure.

5G: China Mobile accelerates in the second half and approaches 100 million mark

In the second half of 2020, 5G began to accelerate and took the absolute center position. In May this year, Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said: "my country adds about 10,000 new 5G base stations every week. It is expected that by the end of this year, there will be more than 600,000 5G base stations covering all cities above the prefecture level in the country."

Recently, China Unicom and China Telecom jointly announced that through joint construction and sharing, the two parties have built and opened more than 300,000 5G base stations, and 5G network coverage has been expanded to all cities at the prefecture level and above in the country, striving to have SA commercial basic network capabilities before September 30. China Mobile has also previously stated that it will strive to achieve SA commercial use in the fourth quarter. So far, more than 500,000 5G base stations have been built nationwide, and the number of 5G terminal connections has exceeded 100 million.

Data shows that in August 2020, the number of China Mobile's 5G (package) users increased by 14.1 million, reaching a total of 98.157 million; China Telecom's 5G package users increased by 7.87 million in the same month, and the total number of 5G package users reached 57.14 million.

China Mobile and China Telecom alone have more than 150 million 5G users. Although China Unicom has not yet announced the number of 5G users, based on the joint construction and sharing of 5G base stations by China Telecom and China Unicom, the number of its 5G package users should be similar to that of China Telecom.

As for why the number of 5G users has not been announced, China Unicom Chairman Wang Xiaochu said last month: "The user statistics method of 5G is different and very complicated. At present, the construction of 5G networks is relatively small. China Unicom will promote it on a large scale after it has the network. In addition, 5G terminals were very expensive at the end of last year. Now is a good time to promote them. China Unicom has actively adjusted its mobile user strategy since the second half of last year and strengthened the large-scale development of 5G public users. It is expected that 5G users will increase significantly in the second half of the year."

According to the data report of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in August 2020, the domestic market shipped 16.17 million 5G mobile phones, accounting for 60.1% of the mobile phone shipments in the same period; from January to August, the cumulative shipments of 5G mobile phones in the domestic market reached 93.679 million units, accounting for 46.3%.

Mobile users: increase and decrease affected by number portability

In terms of the number of mobile users, as of the end of August, the total number of China Mobile reached 946 million, a decrease of 473,000 from July, and a cumulative decrease of 4.375 million this year; China Unicom had a net decrease of 886,000 users, reaching a total of 309 million users, and a net decrease of 9.807 million users this year; China Telecom had a net increase of 1.62 million mobile users, and a total of 347.69 million mobile users.

That is to say, the number of mobile users of China Mobile and China Unicom is decreasing, while only China Telecom is increasing. This is due to the influence of number portability. Mobile and Unicom are losing users, while only Telecom is gaining users.

Of course, number portability will not affect the operator's landscape. China Mobile still leads the way, with more number of users than China Telecom and China Unicom.

Fixed-line broadband: China Mobile's number of users exceeds 200 million

In the fixed-line broadband market, China Mobile is still the leader, with the number of users exceeding 200 million. As of the end of August, China Mobile's wired broadband users had reached 201 million, an increase of 1.734 million from the previous month and a cumulative increase of 13.818 million this year.

China Unicom is still struggling to break the 100 million mark, and the gap is getting bigger and bigger, but fortunately it finally stopped falling and rebounded in August. In August, China Unicom's fixed-line broadband users increased by 171,000, reaching a total of 85.82 million, and a total of 2.342 million this year.

In the face of China Mobile's rapid development and China Unicom's rebound, China Telecom's fixed-line broadband market is quite satisfactory, not eye-catching, and not declining. Of course, it is also under pressure from China Mobile and China Unicom. In August, China Telecom's wired broadband users increased by 710,000 households, and the cumulative number of users reached 155.48 million households.