China Mobile Q3 net profit rises 2.8 pct

BEIJING, Oct 20 - China Mobile <0941.HK> reported a disappointing quarterly profit, up 2.8 percent from a year earlier, underscoring rising pressure from a costly 3G rollout, intensifying competition and a recovering economy.

The world's largest wireless carrier in terms of subscribers on Tuesday posted a third-quarter net profit of 28.64 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) -- according to Reuters calculations based on figures for the first nine months of 2009 -- up from the 27.9 billion yuan a year earlier.

The result fell short of the $29.2 billion yuan forecast by a Reuters poll of six analysts, but marked a return to year-on-year profit growth after a rare decline the previous quarter.

The company said net profit in the first nine months of the year was 83.94 billion yuan, up from 82.4 billion yuan in the year earlier period.

The share price performance of China's top three telephone companies all lagged the 8.16 percent gain on Hong Kong's China Enterprises index <.HSCE> during the third quarter.

Only China Unicom <0762.HK> shares ended the quarter in positive territory, with a 7 percent gain -- boosted by the promise of selling Apple's <AAPL.O> iconic iPhone. China Mobile fell 2.6 percent and China Telecom <0728.HK> lost 5.2 percent. ($1=6.83 yuan)