China Mobile continued to experience a decline in its voice and SMS and MMS businesses, with a 0.3% decrease in the total voice usage and a 20.2% decrease in the SMS usage compared to the same period of last year. However, China Mobile substantially leveraged its first-mover advantages in 4G services and accelerated the migration of customers to 4G network.
As of 30 September 2014, China Mobile customers reached 799 million, among which 40.95 million were 4G customers.
Mobile data traffic for the first three quarters of 2014 increased by 98.6% compared to the same period of last year, which constituted the major driver of revenue growth. Yet it experienced a further slowdown in revenue growth and the operating revenue reached RMB481.2 billion, representing an increase of 3.9% compared to the same period of last year.
China will overtake USA as the number one LTE market in terms of LTE smartphone sales in the second half of 2014, according to Counterpoint Research.
China Mobile Financial Data
| 2014/1Q | 2014/2Q | 2014/3Q | |
| Operating Revenue (RMB Billion) | 154.828 | 169.853 | 156.554 |
|---|---|---|---|
| EBITDA (RMB Billion) | 57.592 | 60.673 | 58.073 |
| Profit Attributable to Equity Shareholders (RMB Billion) | 25.244 | 32.498 | 24.860 |
China Mobile Operating Data
| 2014/1Q | 2014/2Q | 2014/3Q | |
| Total Customers (Million) | 781.08 | 790.61 | 799.13 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Additional Customers (Million) | 13.88 | 9.53 | 8.51 |
| 4G Customers (Million) | 2.79 | 13.94 | 40.95 |
| 3G Customers (Million) | 224.98 | 238.52 | 244.46 |
| Total Voice Usage (Billion Minutes) | 1,043.3 | 1,090.8 | 1,077.0 |
| Mobile Data Traffic (Billion MB) | 190.1 | 236.4 | 298.2 |
| SMS Usage (Billion Messages) | 153.0 | 152.8 | 149.5 |
Continue reading: China Mobile App Distribution Channels Market Share
Source: China Mobile