China's three state-run mobile carriers have released annual results in 2016 by March 22, which have stemmed the chill and achieved growth in both revenue and profit.
But with the end of 4G investments during the peak, China's three major operators take a cautious approach to the capex now.
It is estimated that the 2017 capex will be CNY176 billion for China Mobile, CNY 89 billion for China Telecom and CNY45 billion for China Unicom, respectively falling 6 percent, 8.1 percent and 37.6 percent year-on-year.
The three giants will reduce capex by CNY46.21 billion in total this year, decling 13 percent compared with 2016, which means the telecom vendors in China may have to live through hardship this year.