Telecom Lead Asia: China’s second-largest mobile operator
China Unicom has added 2.92 million 3G subscribers in April 2012 that takes the
total number of 3G subscribers to 51.78 million, according to a statement on
the company’s website.
The carrier has adopted a series of measures to win more
3G customers from market leader China Mobile Ltd., including selling cheaper
smartphones and offering lower-cost 3G services.
The company expects to see its 3G service revenue rise
to 70 billion yuan (11.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012 from 40 billion yuan
last year,” said Shao Guanglu, vice general manager of China Unicom.
He also forecast that the operator’s 3G subscriber base
will reach 90 million by the end of 2012.
The carrier’s 2G subscribers climbed to 160.97 million by
the end of April, up 341,000 month-on-month, according to the statement.
The operator’s Internet users with broadband access
increased by 585,000 to reach 58.87 million by the end of April, while its
fixed-line telephone users fell by 11,000 to 92.34 million, according to the
statement.
China Unicom posts 3G ARPU of RMB 93.9 against mobile ARPU of
RMB 47.7
Recently, China Unicom said its ARPU from 3G was RMB 93.9
for the first quarter of 2012. The average data usage per subscriber per month
was 242.8 MB for 3G business. The ARPU for mobile business was RMB 47.7 in Q1
2012.
Service revenue from the 3G business reached RMB 12.53
billion for the first quarter of 2012 and as a percentage of service revenue
from the mobile business, there was an increase from 24.4 percent for the first
quarter of 2011 to 42.8 percent for the first quarter of 2012.
China Unicom has reported total revenue of RMB 61.19
billion for the first quarter of 2012, up 24.8 percent as compared to the same
period of last year.
China Unicom’s service revenue was RMB 49.99 billion in
Q1 2012, up 13.9 percent over the same quarter last year.
editor@telecomlead.com