Chinese telecom operator Capex increases 16% to $46 billion in 2011

By Telecom Lead Team: The telecom capital
expenditure of Chinese service providers has gone up to $45.71 billion in 2011
from $39.397 billion in 2010, clocking 16 percent growth.

However, telecom Capex in 2011 is lower
than their capital expenditure in 2009. In 2009, telecom operators spent $47.39
billion for adding wireline and wireless infrastructure.

(Please see the chart of capital
expenditure of telecom players in China at the end of the article)

Mobile expenditure has gone up from $27.65
billion to $30.44 billion in 2011. Fixed line expenditure has also increased
from $11.73 billion in 2010 to $15.27 billion in 2011.

In the year of 2009, the fixed line
expenditure stood at $15.12 billion.

In mobile sector, China Mobile tops the
Capex chart in 2011 with $20.34 billion in 2011, followed by China Unicom,
which spent $3.86 billion for the same year.

In the year 2011, China Telecom’s
expenditure stood at $2.38 billion, which went up from $1.46 billion in 2010.

In 2011, China Unicom invested $7.4 billion
in the fixed-line sector, whereas, China telecom invested $5.48 billion for the
same year. Apparently, China Unicom lowered its fixed-line expenditure in past
two years. In 2009, China Unicom’s fixed-line expenditure stood at $8.11 billion,
according to Ovum principal analyst Matt Walker.

On the other hand, China Telecom
continuously increased its fixed-line expenditure in couple of past years. Its
fixed-line expenditure was $4.60 billion in 2009, which increased to $5.48
billion in 2011.

According to a new report from
Wireless Intelligence, China is approaching the 1 billion mark for mobile
connections, mostly due to the popularity of 3G, which accounts for nearly 25
percent of subscribers. China’s mobile connections grew almost 17 percent from
2010 to 2011.

Presently, China Mobile is leading the mobile sector with 648.7 million
subscribers, followed by China Unicom with 199.7 million subscribers and China
Telecom with 125.3 million subscribers.

China Telecom is leading the 3G market
share in China with 125.3 million subscribers, its 3G market share stood at 58
percent. China Mobile has 51.8 million 3G subscribers and it possesses 24
percent 3G market share in China.

By Danish Khan
editor@telecomlead.com