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China Mobile 9-mth revenues up, profits fall
2014-10-20 14:30:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) China Mobile reported operating revenue of CNY 481.2 billion for the first nine months of 2014, up by 3.9 percent over the same period of last year. EBITDA was down 5.0 percent in the same period to CNY 176.3 billion, and net profit fell 9.7 percent year-on-year to CNY 82.6 billion. The operator said revenues were under pressure from the slowdown in voice and SMS traffic, which fell 0.3 percent and 20.2 percent respectively compared to a year ago. This was offset somewhat by the expansion of its 4G services and growing adoption of mobile internet. Data traffic for the nine months rose by 98.6 percent year-on-year. Of the 799 million mobile customers at the end of September, 40.95 million used 4G and 244.46 million were on the 3G network. Revenues were also impacted by the imposition of VAT on the sector, which the operator absorbed in retail prices, and changes to network settlement charges. ARPU totaled CNY 63, a decrease compared to the same period of last year. China Mobile blamed the drop in profit on rising costs for 4G network construction and business development, retention of existing customers, and mobile internet development. This was offset in part by refocusing marketing expenses and reducing non-operating costs.
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Category:Telecommunications