Chinese operators recorded a net gain of 43.88 million 5G subscribers in September, according to the carriers’ latest available figures.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added a total of 27.08 million 5G subscribers in September.
The carrier said it ended last month with 331.22 million 5G subscribers, compared to 113.59 million 5G customers in September 2020.
China Mobile has added a total of 166.22 million subscribers in the 5G segment since the beginning of the year.
China Mobile’s overall mobile subscriber base at the end of September reached 955.70 million, up compared to 951.10 million in the previous month.
Rival operator China Unicom said it added a total of 7.88 million 5G subscribers during last month.
During the first nine months of the year, the carrier added a total of 66.11 million 5G subscribers.
The telco ended September with 136.94 million 5G subscribers. China Unicom started to provide 5G statistics earlier this year.
China Unicom reported an overall mobile base of with 315.55 million subscribers at the end of September, up from 312.95 million in August.
Meanwhile, China Telecom added 8.92 million 5G subscribers in September to take its total 5G subscribers base to 155.54 million. During the January-September period, the telco added a total of 69.04 million 5G subscribers.
China Telecom’s overall mobile base amounted to 369.66 million subscribers at the end of last month, after adding 2.86 million customers during the month.
Chinese operators have already deployed over 1 million 5G base stations across the country, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
5G base stations installed by local carriers have already covered all prefecture-level cities, more than 95% of counties and 35% of towns across China.
The government also reported that 5G base installed in China accounts for 80% of total base stations deployed at a global level.
The ministry said that over 10,000 5G application cases have covered 22 industries and related fields of the national economy, including steel, electric power and mining.
China is forecast to reach 739 million 5G subscribers by 2025, according to a recent study by ABI Research. This figure would represent nearly 40% of the global market share in the 5G segment.
