China Mobile has added a total of 170 million subscribers in the 5G segment since the beginning of the year
Chinese operators recorded a net gain of 31.4 million 5G subscribers in September, according to the operators’ latest available statistics.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, added a total of 18 million 5G subscribers during September. The carrier said it ended last month with 556.8 million 5G subscribers.
China Mobile has added a total of 170 million subscribers in the 5G segment since the beginning of the year.
China Mobile’s overall mobile subscriber base at the end of September amounted to 974.04 million, after a net addition of 798,000 subscribers during the month.
Rival operator China Unicom said it added a total of 6 million 5G subscribers during last month. The carrier ended September with 200.83 million 5G subscribers.
Meanwhile, China Telecom added 7.44 million 5G subscribers last month to take its total 5G subscribers base to 251 million. Since the beginning of the year, the telco has added a total of 63.24 million 5G subscribers.
China Telecom’s overall mobile base amounted to 389.9 million subscribers at the end of last month, after adding 1.89 million customers during September.
Chinese operators have already deployed over 1.97 million 5G base stations across the country, local news agency Xinhua recently reported, citing data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
All prefecture-level cities, counties and 96% of towns across China currently have 5G network coverage, according to the MIIT.
Also, Chinese carriers are expected to add a total of 600,000 base stations to boost 5G netework infrastructure across China during 2022, according to previous reports.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms subscribers, recently said it had invested a total of CNY58.7 billion (currently $8.1 billion) in the 5G segment in the first half of the year.
Meanwhile, China Telecom said it expected to deploy an additional 120,000 5G base stations in the second half of the year to take the total to 990,000.
Along with network partner China Unicom, China Telecom increased the number of 5G base stations by 180,000 in the first half, taking the total to 870,000.
China Telecom said it aims to take 5G coverage to all cities, counties, and key villages and towns by the end of the year.
Meanwhile China Broadnet, the country’s new telecom carrier, recently reached nationwide coverage with its 5G network. China Broadnet had officially launched 5G services in June.
The operator already supplies cable services and became the country’s fourth operator when formally inaugurated in 2020, having previously acquired a license for commercial 5G services in 2019. The carrier was initially known as China Broadcasting Network before rebranding earlier this year.
According to previous reports, China Broadnet will use 5G infrastructure owned by China Mobile. Last year, China Broadnet and China Mobile said they aim to initially deploy 400,000 5G base stations as part of the companies’ efforts to launch a shared 5G network.
