China Mobile has revealed that its 5G subscriber base reached 31.72 million during the first quarter of 2020 with the largest telecom operator adding 29.17 million 5G customers to its network.
China Mobile has 752 million 4G customers. The Group’s total number of mobile customers was around 946 million as at 31 March 2020.

China Mobile is currently the largest 5G service provider in the world. Though AT&T and Verizon, two leading telecom operators in the United States, started 5G business in April 2019, they have not revealed their subscriber-base.

Operators in South Korea – SK Telecom, KT and LG U+ — have added significant number of 5G subscribers.

China Mobile’s operating revenue fell 2 percent to RMB 181.3 billion. China Mobile’s revenue from telecommunications services increased 1.8 percent to RMB 168.9 billion during the first quarter despite the spread of coronavirus.

COVID-19 has impacted China Mobile’s telecommunications services revenue in the first quarter of 2020. Currently, measures to prevent and control COVID-19 are still underway and some impact may carry over, China Mobile said.

China Mobile reported EBITDA of RMB 68.5 billion, registering by 5.8 percent drop over the same period last year. China Mobile posted profit of RMB 23.5 billion, down 0.8 percent over the same period last year.

Mobile ARPU dropped 6.7 percent year-on-year to RMB 46.9 for the first quarter of the year and the decline rate has moderated compared to that of the previous year.

The number of wireline broadband customers was 191 million as China Mobile added 4.10 million customers in the first quarter of the year. China Mobile’s wireline broadband ARPU was RMB 31.3.