China Mobile's net profit grew nearly 6 percent in the first half of the year as the world's biggest mobile carrier consolidated its advantages in 4G.
The Hong Kong-listed telco also planned to invest heavily to expand its 4G network and data services in the second half year amid intense competition in the sector, said Shang Bing, chairman of China Mobile, in a statement yesterday.
In the first half, China Mobile's net profit hit 60.6 billion yuan ($9.2 billion), a rise of 5.6 percent annually. Its revenue rose 7.1 percent year on year to 370 billion yuan.
It had more than 837 million users by the end of June, including 429 million 4G users, more than the combined figure of China Unicom and China Telecom's 4G user base.
The telco added 200,000 new 4G base stations in the quarter to bring the total to over 1.32 million nationwide.
"The development of 4G services boosts data traffic demand and further ARPU (average revenue per user) value," it said.
