China Mobile gets 5.26 mln new users in August

Sep. 21, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China Mobile Ltd<0941>, the country's largest telecom operator, said it added 5.26 million subscribers in August, after netting 4.55 million in July, sources reported.

The telecom carrier said its new 3G subscribers totaled 1.33 million last month.

In the first eight months of this year, China Mobile added 45.69 million users. At the end of August, the company's user base amounted to 502.94 million.

China Mobile's net profit dropped 1.6% to RMB 30.1 billion in the second quarter of the year, due to intense competition in the domestic market, weak 3G performance and a slow economy, China Knowledge reported earlier.

For the first half of this year, the carrier posted a net profit of RMB 55.3 billion, up 1.4% from a year earlier. Its new mobile users accounted for 66% of the country's total in the first half, compared with 85% a year earlier, due to changes in the competitive landscape, said the company.

China Mobile aims to list in the domestic market and plans to sell existing shares rather than issue new shares to avoid diluting its Hong Kong-listed shares.