China Telecom Sees Rapid Transformation

China Telecom is undergoing a rapid transformation into "an intelligent pipeline, a provider of integrated platforms, and a participant in content and application development" as it continues to benefit from rapid gains in mobile users (up 40% YoY to 126 million, including 36 million 3G subs) and surging numbers of wireline broadband subscribers (up 21% to 76.81 million). Operating revenues for 2011 reached RMB244.9 billion (US$38.7 billion), up by 11.7% over 2010. Profit for 2011 was RMB16.4 billion (US$2.6 billion), up by 10.5%. Traditional access lines in service were 170 million at year's end, down 3.1% for the year.


"In 2011, we firmly seized the valuable market opportunities arising from the rapidly proliferating mobile Internet applications and the increasing demand of industry informatisation to continue to deepen our strategic transformation. We pragmatically promoted the development of our Three New Roles -– a leader of intelligent pipeline, a provider of integrated platforms, and a participant in content and application development -- and proactively expanded into emerging areas such as mobile Internet," stated Mr. Wang Xiaochu, China Telecom's Chairman and CEO.


Some key metrics at China Telecom:


During 2011, China Telecom added 35.95 million mobile users and became the world’s largest CDMA operator.


China Telecom has now captured 13% of the nation's mobile market. For 3G, its market share is now 29%.


The company is currently experiencing robust sales of smartphones priced around RMB1,000. China Telecom will differentiate itself with an integrated platform that gathers popular Internet applications such as instant messaging, Weibo, group buying and Best Tone services.


Mobile service revenue reached RMB68.2 billion, up 43% over last year, and rising to 28% of total revenue.


In 2011, mobile data revenue was RMB29,620 million, an increase of 57.4% over last year.


Revenue from wireline broadband service was RMB 60.8 billion, an increase of 12.3% over last
year.


By the end of 2011, all cities in service areas basically had 8 Mbps bandwidth access capability, while 20 Mbps bandwidth coverage reached 70%.


In 2011, the net addition of wireline broadband subscribers was 13.33 million and the total number of wireline
broadband subscribers reached 76.81 million.


Wireline voice revenue was RMB49,764 million, its proportion of total revenue declining to 20.3%


OPEX as a percentage of revenue was 90.2% compared to 89.5% last year.


CAPEX for 2011 was RMB49.55 billion. Broadband & Internet investment accounted for 66.8% of total CAPEX, The CAPEX forecast for 2012 is RMB54 billion.
http://www.chinatelecom-h.com