After China Telecom and China Unicom published their statistics for January 2009, another major Chinese telecommunications operator, China Mobile, has now also released its operating statistics.

The statistics show that the number of its new users increased 6.67 million in the first month of 2009, which was lower than the 7.07 million user increase in December 2008. In addition, it was the smallest user growth since December 2007. The net increase of China Mobile's users was 6.44 million, a year-on-year decrease of 8.5% and a decrease of 8.9% compared with the previous month. The total number of its users reached 463 million.

According to research from United Overseas Bank, the main reasons for China Mobile's slow growth in January 2009 are because of the economic downturn and ever-increasing competitive pressure. However, the statistics can still meet the expectation of the industry, which says China Mobile will gain 60-80 million new users in 2009, an average monthly increase of 5-6.7 million.