Two major Chinese telecom operators, China Mobile and China Telecom, have published their respective financial reports for the first three quarters of 2009.
According to the financial report of China Mobile, during the three quarters ended September 30, 2009, it made revenue of CNY326.977 billion, an increase of 8.9% compared with the same period of last year. Its net profit was CNY83.935 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.8% compared with the CNY82.415 billion during the same period of last year. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were CNY167.739 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%; and its rate of EBITDA was 51.3%.
By the end of September 2009, the total communication time used via China Mobile's network was about 2.134 trillion minutes, with minutes of usage of 491 minutes and average revenue per user of CNY75.
China Mobile said the user growth slowed down during the reporting period. However, the company still gained 5.68 million new users each month in the first three quarters of 2009. By September 30, 2009, the number of China Mobile's users had reached 508.37 million.
China Mobile said it will continue to enhance investments in marketing channels, customer services, network optimization, supporting systems, and research and development to improve its core competitiveness.
China Telecom has also published its financial report for the first three quarters of 2009, stating that its revenue was CNY154.748 billion during the period, a year-on-year increase of 15.3% compared with the CNY134.174 billion during the same period of 2008; its net profit was CNY11.392 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 33.9%; and its EBITDA were CNY63.556 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.9%.
Affected by the global financial crisis and the impact from the mobile network, China Telecom's fixed line business continued to decline during the three quarters. By September 30, 2009, the number of its fixed line users was 194.39 million, a decrease of 5.97 million compared with that of three months ago.
In addition, the number of its broadband users reached 51.45 million during the reporting period, a net increase of 7.18 million year-over-year; while the number of its mobile users was 46.79 million, a net increase of 18.87 million.