China Mobile Ltd. (CHL) is looking towards international expansion into emerging markets similar to an investment it made last year in Pakistan, according to a Reuters report.
According to the Reuters story, China Mobile’s chairman, Wang Jianzhou told investors at a conference in Hong Kong that the world’s largest mobile operator is looking at acquisition opportunities in a number of developing countries, with Myanmar singled out as a possible target.
The report noted that China Mobile’s $300 million investment in Pakistan has attracted 10 million customers, or approximately 10% market share.
China Mobile noted that the investment plans would not require any additional outside funding.
“We don’t need the money,” Jianzhou said. “We have enough cash.”
With all of that cash on hand, China Mobile is also reportedly planning to invest $1.5 billion into expanding Wi-Fi coverage in China, a move that will help the carrier offload mobile data traffic from its cellular network.
Also, speaking about its domestic operations, Jianzhou noted that the carrier expects average revenue per user to continue to decline as a bulk of new customers are coming from poorer, rural areas of the country. China Mobile reported that ARPU had dropped from $11.68 during the fourth quarter of 2010 to $10.27 during the first quarter of this year. Rival China Unicom posted a similar drop in ARPU.
China Mobile ended March of this year with just over 600 million customers on its domestic network.
China Mobile eyes international expansion
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