China Mobile, a major telecom operator in China, has increased its 5G subscriber base by 152 million since the beginning of the year. In August, all Chinese operators added 26.2 million 5G subscribers, according to the latest information available from carriers.
The rise of Chinese 5G subscribers
In terms of customer base, China Mobile, the world’s largest operator, added 15.08 million new 5G customers in August. At the end of the previous month, 538.8 million 5G subscribers were on board in the operator’s portfolio. The total number of China Mobile’s mobile subscribers at the end of August reached 973.24 million, up from 971.13 million over the previous month. Rival operator China Unicom reported gaining 4.88 million new 5G users in total during August 2022. 194.83 million 5G subscribers were on board the carrier at the end of August.
According to RCR Wireless, meanwhile, China Telecom increased its 5G subscriber base by 6.27 million last month, bringing the total to 243.6 million. The carrier has added a total of 55.8 million 5G subscribers since the beginning of the year. China Telecom added nearly 1.90 million new users in August, bringing the total number of mobile subscribers to 388 million.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, local news agency Xinhua recently revealed that Chinese operators have already installed more than 1.97 million 5G base stations across the country. According to MIIT, cities, prefectures and 96% of their villages in China currently have 5G network coverage. According to previous forecasts, telecom companies will also build a total of 600,000 base stations to improve 5G infrastructure across China in 2022.
China Mobile, the world’s largest operator by number of customers, recently said it spent 58.7 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) in the 5G market in the first half of 2018. The second half of the year will see the deployment of 120,000 additional 5G stations, bringing the total to 990,000.
China Telecom added 180,000 5G base stations in the first half, bringing the total to 870,000 with network partner China Unicom. By the end of the year, all major cities, counties, villages and towns should have 5G coverage, according to China Telecom.
