China Unicom and China Telecom have shared 50,000 5G base stations and jointly saved investment costs of RMB 10 billion.
China Unicom’s capital expenditure (Capex) has reached RMB 56.4 billion in 2019. China Unicom revealed that its Capex for 2020 will be RMB 70 billion.

The 5G Capex of China Unicom will be RMB 35 billion in 2020 as compared with 5G Capex of RMB 7.9 billion in 2019.

China Unicom in September 2019 entered into a cooperation agreement with China Telecom to jointly build one 5G access network across the country. China Unicom would be doubling of 5G network coverage, bandwidth, capacity and transmission speed, providing users with better experience.

China Unicom said it will actively step up the “co-build and co-share” with China Telecom in areas such as 4G indoor distributed antenna systems, server rooms, optical fibre and pipelines to further enhance network advantages and corporate value.

Challeges

The company faces the impact of high saturation of the traditional market, adverse impacts brought by fierce market competition and speed upgrade and tariff reduction, as well as new challenges such as the increase in capital expenditure and operating expenses arising from 5G deployment, says Wang Xiaochu, chairman and CEO of China Unicom.

China Unicom EBITDA reached RMB 94.4 billion, representing an increase of 11.1 percent with 11.1 percent increase in profit to RMB 11.3 billion.

China Unicom reported service revenue of RMB 264.4 billion, representing an increase of 0.3 percent year-on-year, in 2019.

Mobile service revenue of the company amounted to RMB 156.4 billion, representing a year-on-year decrease of 5.3 percent.

China Unicom added 3.44 million mobile billing subscribers, reaching a total of 318 million mobile billing subscribers.

China Unicom added 33.84 million 4G subscribers, reaching total 4G subscriber base of 254 million. China Unicom’s 4G subscribers account for 80 percent of mobile billing subscribers in 2019.

The unit pricing of mobile data service decreased significantly but mobile data traffic volume and the monthly average DOU per mobile handset user increased significantly. The mobile data traffic volume increased by 46 percent and the monthly average DOU per handset user reached 8GB.

China Unicom’s revenue from industry Internet business rose 43 percent to RMB 32.9 billion, accounting for 12.4 percent of the total service revenue, becoming an important driver in stabilising service revenue momentum.

Fixed-line service revenue of China Unicom reached RMB 105.7 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.7 percent.