China Mobile Ltd., the Hong Kong listed subsidiary of state-owned China Mobile Corp has reported an 8.9% rise in its first half revenues to RMB212.9 billion (US$31.2 billion). Net profit rose by 1.4% to RMB55.3 billion (US$8.1 billion), while the company added 35.9 million net new subscribers over the six months.
The total customer base reached 493 million at the end of June 2009, of which, 959,000 were using the company's TD-SCDMA based 3G network.
EBITDA reached RMB110 billion, representing an increase of 5.8 per cent. over the same period of last year. Value-added business grew rapidly, continuing to increase its contribution to total revenue, accounting for 28.1 per cent. of the total revenue. For the six months ended 30 June 2009, the Group's total voice usage volume reached 1,387 billion minutes and the average minutes of usage per user per month (MOU) was 490 minutes. Average revenue per user per month (ARPU) was RMB75 (US$11).
The Board is of the view that the Company's favorable operating results and strong cash flow generating capability will continue to support the sustainable future development of the Company, while providing shareholders with a favorable cash return.
Although the company explicitly stated that it is committed to its 3G deployment, it added that it will work towards an LTE network. The statement will add fuel to the suspicion that the company's commitment to the home-grown TD-SCDMA standard is not whole hearted and that it is seeking to move as swiftly as possible to the more widespread LTE standard.
The company also confirmed that it will continue to seek out overseas investment opportunities.
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