China Mobile’s operating revenue reached 708.4 billion yuan in 2016, representing an increase of 6.0% from the previous year according to its official financial results.
The growth rate of revenue from China Mobile’s telecommunications services stood at 6.7%, achieving a five-year high. The revenue structure improved further with wireless data traffic revenue increasing by 43.5% from the previous year, accounting for 46.2% of revenue from telecommunications services. Wireless data traffic became the biggest revenue source in 2016 for the first time, surpassing the combined revenue of voice, SMS, and MMS.
Profit attributable to equity shareholders reached 108.7 billion yuan in 2016, or basic earnings per share of 5.31 yuan.
China Mobile maintained its market leading position in terms of the overall development of 4G business,
particularly in the areas of coverage and network quality. In 2016, it had a net addition of 223 million 4G customers, bringing the total number of 4G customers to 535 million. The 4G penetration rate of its mobile customers reached 63.0%.
In 2016, China Mobile had a net addition of 22.59 million wireline broadband customers, driving the total number of customers for this service up to 77.62 million, 76.9% of which subscribed to services with a bandwidth of 20M or above.
The number of customers of its home digital product “Mobaihe”, the set-top box that provides high-definition video-on-demand service, has exceeded 22.80 million. Customer value for its broadband service has also increased steadily.
In 2016, China Mobile served 5.45 million corporate customers and generated an increased proportion of product related revenue. Its corporate telecommunications and informatization services revenue continued to grow and accounted for approximately one-third of the total market.