China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., the Hong Kong-listed arm of China United Telecommunications Corp. (China Unicom), saw a decrease in the number of subscribers to both its fixed-line and broadband services in December 2008, the company announced on Jan. 20.
China Unicom's total fixed-line subscriber base decreased by 4.87 million to 100.15 million by the end of December 2008. In addition, the operator's broadband subscriber base was down by 22,000 to 25.42 million, marking the first time in 2008 that an operator reported a loss of broadband subscribers.
China Unicom added 424,000 million GSM users in December. Its total GSM mobile phone subscriber base reached 133.37 million, representing a 0.31 percent monthly growth rate for December, compared to growth of 0.75 percent in November.
According to Fu Liang, an independent telecom analyst, the decrease in China Unicoms's fixed-line and broadband user numbers could be due to changes in the way the figures are calculated following the telecom industry restructure. China Telecom Corp. Ltd., the listed arm of China Telecommunications Corp. (China Telecom), and China Mobile Ltd., the listed arm of China Mobile Communications Corp. (China Mobile), also released monthly subscriber data for December on Jan. 20.
China Telecom had 27.91 million CDMA users by the end of December, representing a loss of 60,000 subscribers, far less than respective losses in November and October of 430,000 and 680,000.
China Telecom lost a further 2.02 million fixed-line and PHS subscribers in December, bringing its fixed-line and PHS user base to 208.35 million. The total loss of fixed-line and PHS subscribers for the year was 11.98 million.
China Telecom added 700,000 broadband subscribers in December, pushing its total broadband subscriber base to 44.27 million. The total addition of broadband subscribers for the whole year reached 8.62 million. China Mobile added 7.07 million new mobile phone subscribers in December, pushing its total subscriber base up to 457.25 million. The growth rate for its subscriber base increased slightly, by 0.02 percentage points on November to 1.55 percent. It added a total of 87.91 million mobile subscribers in 2008. The tables below detail the three operators' subscriber numbers as of December 2008. Subscriber breakdown of major Chinese operators, December 2008
|
Service |
Cumulative subscribers, Dec 31, 2008 (mln) |
Net addition over the month of Dec 2008 (mln) |
Monthly change (%) |
Net addition in November/ October/ September/ August (mln) |
|
China Mobile GSM service |
457.25 |
7.07 |
1.55 |
6.87/ 7.19/ 7.25/ 7.18 |
|
China Unicom GSM service |
133.37 |
0.42 |
0.31 |
1/ 1.22/ 1.27/ 0.91 |
|
China Unicom fixed-line service |
100.15 |
-4.87 |
-4.86 |
-1.52/ -0.79/ -0.47/ -0.41 |
|
China Unicom broadband service |
25.42 |
-0.02 |
-0.08 |
0.23/ 0.35/ 0.61/ 0.27 |
|
China Telecom CDMA service |
27.91 |
-0.06 |
-0.21 |
-0.43/ -0.68/ -/ -* |
|
China Telecom fixed-line service |
208.35 |
-2.02 |
-0.97 |
-1.51/ -1.09/ -0.63/ -0.69 |
|
China Telecom broadband service |
44.27 |
0.7 |
1.58 |
0.69/ 0.7/ 0.73/ 0.69 |
Source:INTERFAX-CHINA