The macroeconomic slowdown, a rising mobile communications penetration rate and changes in the competitive environment of the telecommunications industry in China have posed challenges to China Mobile in the first half of 2009. 
However, operating revenue continued to grow steadily, reaching RMB 212,913 million for the six months ended 30 June 2009, representing an increase of 8.9 per cent. over the same period of last year. Profit attributable to shareholders of RMB55.3 billion, up by 1.4%
Some highlights for the period:
- China Mobile added 35.87 million new subscribers in the first half of the year, pushing its total customer base to 493 million.
- In June 2009, customers who used 3G network services reached 959,000.
- Mobile data users surpassed 451 million
- Average monthly churn rose to 3.31%
- China Mobile now has 410,000 base stations, of which 91% have fiber access.
- Value-added business grew rapidly, continuing to increase its contribution to total revenue, accounting for 28.1 percent. of the total revenue.
- For the six months ended 30 June 2009, the Group's total voice usage volume reached 1,387.047 billion minutes and the average minutes of usage per user per month (MOU) was 490 minutes.
- Average revenue per user per month (ARPU) was RMB75.
- In the 3G era, China Mobile aims to leverage its network advantage in a differentiated full-service strategy. The company will proactively develop and promote an LTE network evolution.
- China Mobile also plans to actively search for quality overseas telecommunications assets as investment opportunities and as a way to explore international development.
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