China Unicom Sees Growth in 3G and Broadband Bundled Services

China Unicom experienced continued growth in 3G subscriptions and in fixed broadband access during the first half of 2011 as the number of fixed line and PHS customers continued to decline, leading the company to report revenue of RMB 101.385 b billion, up by 22% over the same period last year. Profits came in at RMB 2.637 billion, down by 5.5% compared with the same period last year.


In the first half of the year, operating cash flow was RMB 34.352 billion, an increase of 10.5% over last year, and capital expenditure (CAPEX) was RMB 25.968 billion, a decline of 22.1% compared to last year.


Some highlights from the company's financial report:

Mobile (as of 30-June-2011)


the total number of subscribers reached 181.61 million, up 15.7% over last year.


3G penetration was 13.2% of the customer base


Overall ARPU reached RMB 46.8, up 9.3% over last year.


3G ARPU was RMB 117.5, a decrease of 11.7% compared to last year.


3G service revenue now accounts for 26.9% of total mobile revenue.


The total number of 3G basestations was 203,000, up 32.8% over last year.


The HSPA+ network cover 56 cities. It has a top downlink rate of 21 Mbps.


The total number of GSM basestations is 348,000, up 13.7% over last year.


The total 3G voice usage for the first half of the year was 66.21 billion minutes.


The total GSM voice usage for the first half of the year was 242.48 billion, up 5.5% over last year.


The number of mobile TV subscribers, mobile reading subscribers and mobile mailbox subscribers was 8.511 million, 7.925 million and 17.528 million, respectively.


Fixed Line


Added 5.098 million broadband subscribers in the first half, yielding a total of 52.322 million current subscribers, up 19.6% compared to last year.


Subscribers with 4 Mbps and above accounted for 35% of all broadband subscribers.


The number of broadband content and application subscribers reached 19.396 million, accounting for 37% of all broadband subscribers.


Service revenue for fixed broadband was RMB 17.172 billion, up 18.7% compared to last year.


Monthly ARPU for broadband was RMB 57.6, down 1.5% from last year.


The number of "WO Family" subscribers increased by 3.309 million to 3.697 million.


The loss of traditional local telephone subscribers was 1.177 million, leaving the company with 95.458 million.


The local telephone business generated RMB 17.663 billion in revenue, down 15% compared to last year.
http://www.chinaunicom.com.hk