The fight for users in China has increased as LTE services have shifted the user landscape for China's largest telecommunications providers.
Chinese telecom operator China Unicom published its operating statistics for January 2014, stating that the company gained 3.869 million new 3G users during the reporting period, reaching a total 3G user group of 126.47 million people.
At the same time, China Unicom gained 3.123 million new mobile users in January and the total number of its mobile users reached 284.11 million.
For fixed-line business, China Unicom's fixed-line phone users increased by 380,000 in January, totaling 88.02 million; and its broadband users increased by 661,000, totaling 65.31 million.
China Telecom also announced its performance for January 2014. The report showed that China Telecom lost 800,000 mobile users during the first month of 2014 and the number of its total mobile users decreased to 184.78 million. Meanwhile, its 3G users increased by 30,000 to 103.14 million.
China Telecom said that the user loss was mainly due to its competitors' launch of LTE services and their enhanced promotions. China Telecom launched its own LTE services in mid-February, long after others already had a jump on the company. With the further expansion of LTE services, the company plans to gradually strengthen its related marketing and promotion to stimulate the healthy growth of mobile users.
For fixed-line business, China Telecom's fixed-line phone users decreased by 880,000 to 154.92 million in January 2014; while its broadband users increased by 750,000 to 100.85 million.
