China Mobile increases its 4G user base to 64 Million

China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, is continuously adding more and more market to its 4G services. Recently, it has expanded 4G base at very fast rate and witnessed a significant jump in Quarter 1 APRU. However, the operator poses serious challenges for setting tariffs as more competitors are entering market with low tariffs for relatively modest connectivity services.

The operator’s 4G user base reached to 64 million in Quater1, which now makes total of 377 million is nearly 30 per cent of the global 4G market. The figure is undoubtedly significant and has placed China Mobile in a very dominant position but as the rivals are opting for low Tariffs, it has slowed the growth pace of overall industry.  As per GSMA Intelligence, the global LTE-base has surpassed 1.1 billion at the end of last year where it is estimated to be 1.22 billion at the end of the Q1.

Most of the 4G adoption in consumers were from the 3G base which is now 153 million. Further the operator acquired 7.6 million mobile connection in total for the quarter, making it up to 834 million users which represents 63 per cent market share.

As per reports, the revenue for period increased by 8.7 per cent year-on-year with the earning reaching CNY 177.5 billion, the net profit was just near 0.5 per cent which makes it up to CNY23.9 billion. The company also released a statement that “taking into consideration the factors of high pressure on tariff reduction and the carryover effect of terminal sales last year, the group’s revenue growth rate for the whole year faces challenge”.

ARPU also showed significant growth of 20 percent with amount increasing up to CNY57.60 in comparison to last quarter. The Mobile data Traffic reached 148 per cent year-on-year, where a single user’s monthly average usage rose 24 per cent to 551MB in Q1.

The SMS usage saw a decline with 2.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 10.6 per cent year-on-year. Monthly Average per minute usage also dropped to 2.6 per cent ending the total to 409.

The figures show a major rise in mobile data due to increasing 4G spectrum. Also there ARPU have been going up despite of low Tariffs due to increasing base. The report also speculated that there could be slow growth in coming year as the Tariffs may prove a challenging area. However, the growth in 4G can also see slump due to rising 5G anticipations. The time for a faster spectrum is still not very close, so China Mobile can count on its 4G proudly.