China Mobile’s 4G chugging along

The Chinese wireless carriers have published their latest monthly customer figures and China Mobile continues to lead the race in adding 4G subscribers. China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the world by customer numbers had one of its strongest months adding 4G customers in October, since launching its 4G service back in early 2014.

The October operational numbers show the company added approximately 19.7 million 4G customers. This has taken its total 4G subscriber base to 267.3 million, substantially exceeding its 3G subscriber base and a long way from the approximately 54.5 million 4G subscribers China Mobile had a year earlier. Indeed, the 267.3 million 4G subscribers is greater than all but a handful of countries populations. And the company added just over a million additional customers to finish October with a smidgen fewer than 824 million customers in total, far higher than its two domestic rivals combined.

China Mobile has now strung together five consecutive months of 18 million plus 4G subscriber additions and has already overshot its earlier stated goal of having 250 million 4G customers by the end of the year. Based on the current trajectory China Mobile will surpass 300 million 4G subscribers sometime in January of next year.

The race to grab 4G customers is on because they consume much higher amounts of data. In China Mobile’s case, data traffic per month per 4G user has been running at approximately 2.5x the blended average of the entire user base. Driven by the rapid accumulation of 4G customers and development of 4G services, China Mobile’s data traffic has continued to explode upwards, with the company reporting mobile data traffic up 151% in its most recent reporting period, compared to the same period the year earlier.

For nearly 15 years, Fat Prophets remains UK’s premier equity research and funds management company. Register today to receive our special report Bargain Hunting, and a no obligation free trial to our popular email service

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR FREE ON ADVFN, the world's leading stocks and shares information website, provides the private investor with all the latest high-tech trading tools and includes live price data streaming, stock quotes and the option to access 'Level 2' data on all of the world's key exchanges (LSE, NYSE, NASDAQ, Euronext etc).

Follow @fatprophets

This area of the ADVFN.com site is for independent financial commentary. These blogs are provided by independent authors via a common carrier platform and do not represent the opinions of ADVFN Plc. ADVFN Plc does not monitor, approve, endorse or exert editorial control over these articles and does not therefore accept responsibility for or make any warranties in connection with or recommend that you or any third party rely on such information. The information available at ADVFN.com is for your general information and use and is not intended to address your particular requirements. In particular, the information does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by ADVFN.COM and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making (or refraining from making) any investment decisions. Authors may or may not have positions in stocks that they are discussing but it should be considered very likely that their opinions are aligned with their trading and that they hold positions in companies, forex, commodities and other instruments they discuss.

WHAT IS ADVFN?

ADVFN covers all things stock market.

From the news and opinion pieces on pages like this to share discussion forums, charting tools, financials, live share prices and Level 2, order book data

If you trade or invest ADVFN has the tools you need to make the right decisions.

• 

  101 Ways to Pick Stock Market Winners

  You need the number one bestselling investment guide, the definitive text for day traders, investors and stock pickers.

• 

  The Death of Wealth

  Dissecting the global economy and the financial markets, the book lays out the evidence for the next economic game changer: the Death of Wealth.

• 

  John Cadogan

• 

  Fat Prophets

• 

  ActivTrades

• 

  Peter Gold