China Mobile reported revenue of RMB266.5 billion (US$41.8 billion) for the first half of 2012, up 6.6% over the same period last year, as profits increased by 1.5% over the same period last year to RMB62.2 billion. EBITDA slightly decreased by 0.9% over the same period last year to RMB123.1 billion, with EBITDA margin reaching 46.2%.
Despite increased mobile penetration rates and intensified competition, China Mobile had a net addition of 33.51 million customers, bringing the total customer base to 683 million. The mid- to high-end customer base remained stable. Revenue derived from wireless data traffic, as a component of data services revenue, achieved RMB29.2 billion, up 51.6% over the same period last year.
Some highlights for the first half of 2012:
- Added 15 million 3G subscribers to reach total of 67 million.
- Voice usage volume continued to increase, with total voice usage reaching 2,060 billion minutes, up 9.2% over the same period last year.
- Wireless data traffic accounted for 11.0% of operating revenue.
- Revenue from applications and information services reached RMB24.6 billion, up 8.2% over the same period last year.
- China Mobile's 2.83 million Wi-Fi APs 68.6% of total data traffic in 1H 2012, effectively offloading its GSM network
- China Mobile has 750,000 GSM Base Stations, with network utilization at ~72.4%.
- China Mobile now has nearly 240,000 3G base stations, network utilization reached 18.5%
- China Mobile is currently offering 167 smartphone models, 126 of which are priced below RMB 1,000
- China Mobile is making progress with its Smart Pipes initiative: Mobile Mailbox revenue was up 82% to RMB 1.1 billion, Mobile Reading Revenue was up 77% to RMB 502 million, Mobile Video revenue was up 83% to RMB 420 million, Mobile Gaming revenue was up 48% to RMB 415 million.
- Added 480,000km of fiber to its metro networks.
