Telecom service provider China Mobile today said its Q1 2014 revenue rose 7.8 percent to $24.8 billion (RMB 154.8 billion), while profit decreased 9.4 percent to $4 billion (RMB 25.2 billion). It said OTT players challenged its business conditions.

EBITDA decreased 5.9 percent to RMB 57.6 billion.

China Mobile ARPU decreased to RMB 62 in Q1 2014 from RMB 68 in Q4 2013 due to the rapid growth of Over The Top (OTT) products.

China Mobile said it added 33.35 million 3G customers to reach 224.98 million in Q1 2014.

The company said 4G subscriber base of China Mobile reached 2.79 million. During the first quarter, China Mobile introduced Apple iPhone 5c and 5s to better customer experience on its limited 4G network.

Despite adding 3G and 4G subscribers, China Mobile posted drop in wireless data traffic to 566.8 billion MB in Q1 2014 from 660.8 billion MB in Q4 2013.

Out of total wireless data traffic, China Mobile generated mobile data traffic of 190.1 billion MB that increased from 161.9 billion MB. WLAN data traffic nosedived to 376.7 billon MB from 498.9 billion MB, China Mobile said.

Due to severe challenges from OTT players, China Mobile’s messaging business and voice minutes affected.

China Mobile said average voice minutes dropped to 456 minutes per subscriber in Q1 2014 from 476 minutes in Q4 2013. Total voice usage decreased to 1,043.3 billion minutes from 1,095.7 billion minutes.

The number of messages (SMS) sent declined to 153 billion in Q1 2014 from 163.8 billion in Q4 2013, China Mobile said.

China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua said Wireless data traffic increased by 48.1 percent in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same period of last year, of which mobile data traffic increased by 83.8 percent compared to the same period of last year.

Baburajan K
[email protected]