Telecom Lead Asia:  Mobile giant China
Telecom has posted Q1 operating revenues of RMB 67.92 billion, up 15.7 percent,
as compared with RMB 58.72 billion for Q1 of 2011.

The operating revenues excluding mobile terminal sales were
RMB62.28 billion, up 12.0 percent as compared with RMB55.59 billion for the
first quarter of 2011.

As a result of the growth in the mobile service revenue, the
company said CDMA network capacity lease fees increased significantly, leading
to the growth rate of network operations and support expenses being higher than
the growth rate of revenues.

The company posted profit of RMB4.27 billion, representing a
decrease of 6.5 percent, against RMB 4.57billion for the same quarter of 2011.

EBITDA (before CDMA network capacity lease fees) was
RMB24.02 billion, representing an increase of 0.9 percent over the
corresponding period of last year.

For the quarter the average mobile service revenue per user
per month (ARPU) was around RMB51.7, which was primarily stable as compared to
that for the full year of last year.

Facing the challenges from the new Internet technology and
the intensified mobile substitution, the number of local access lines in
service of the Group declined by 0.88 million in the first quarter.

The wireline broadband subscribers reached 80.4 million,
representing a net addition of 3.59 million. The fundamentals of the overall
wireline services continued to remain stable.

During the quarter, the operator added 9.36 million new
mobile subscribers, boosting China Telecom’s subscriber base to 135.8 million
at the end of March.

The company added 7.26 million new 3G subscribers during the
quarter as compared with 7.86 million for the previous quarter.

Following  the  launch  of  iPhone
4S in the period,  the company made an appropriate  increase  in
marketing  initiatives  for  the  profitable
scale  development  of  its  mobile services,
which  is  expected  to  significantly  enhance
its  long  term  sustainable  growth  and  value
creation despite the short term pressure on its profitability.

China Telecom to up capital expenditure by 9% to $8.54 billion
in 2012

Recently, China Telecom announced that it will increase its
capital expenditure by 9 percent to $8.54 billion in 2012.