China Unicom posted revenue of RMB 138.160 billion (–1.5 percent), EBITDA of RMB 43.559 billion (+5.5 percent) and net profit of RMB 2.415 billion (+68.9 percent) in the first half of 2017.

The increase in the EBITDA of China Unicom is significant because the China based telecom operator posted 9.1 percent drop in its EBITDA in 2016.

China Unicom, as part of its strategy on business transformation, has enhanced targeted marketing with effective new customer touch points. It has focused on access to youth market. China Unicom achieved increase revenue with low incremental cost by achieving savings on channel commission and handset subsidy.

China Unicom introduced proprietary centralised BSS system and nationwide e-commerce platform.

Focus in H2 2017

# China Unicom will stop charging mobile domestic long-distance and roaming from September
# To strengthen the incentive of front line and leverage integrated products to speed up the turnaround in broadband business
# To strengthen capability development and optimise business organisation to drive scale development in innovative businesses
# To tackle both the form and substance of the problems to lift customer service standard
# To adhere to focus and cooperation, streamlined and efficient business operation to enhance resources and assets efficiency To strengthen business model transformation and match customers with right products at right channels
# To accelerate 4G development in H2 2017

China Unicom focused on network upgrade, terminal / channel upgrade, service upgrade and IT upgrade during the first half of 2017.
China Unicom said it strengthened data traffic operation and targeted marketing for sub-divided segments to drive scale and profitable business development.

China Unicom said it’s effectively transforming cost-driven development model to one with low subscriber acquisition cost and subsidies. Mobile service revenue growth reached 5.2 percent, outperforming industry average and significantly improving profitability.
China Unicom said its subscriber growth and value enhancement was led by 4G growth: 4G subscriber net addition was 34.26 million as compared with December 2016. China Unicom’s 4G ARPU was RMB 66.5.

China Unicom achieved IDC / Cloud revenue of RMB 5.80 billion (+22.0 percent). China Unicom is the second largest IDC service provider in China. China Unicom has 12 cloud data centres and >300 local data centres with ~122k cabinets in service.

ICT revenue of China Unicom rose 15.6 percent to RMB 1.87 billion by focusing on verticals such as public administration, environmental protection, healthcare, education and manufacturing.

IPTV revenue, which is part of Video services, rose 36.1 percent to RMB 0.81 billion.

Investment

China Unicom achieved network quality and customers’ perception on par with industry in focused regions despite considerable reduction in Capex. The Capex of China Unicom will be reduced to RMB 45 billion in 2017 from RMB 72.1 billion in 2016 and RMB 133.9 billion in 2015.

In 2015-16, China Unicom invested over RMB 200 billion resulted in substantial improvement in network capability and capacity H1 2017. China Unicom increased network utilization and improved returns with 4G network utilization reaching 35 percent against 10 percent in H1 2016.

China Unicom launched NB-IoT pre-commercial network and connections reached nearly 50 million. It built the world’s largest single-city NB-IoT network in Shanghai and comprehensively introduced NFV technology.

4G

China Unicom focused on key regions and businesses, precise deployment and capacity expansion to improve network competitiveness. China Unicom deployed second carrier in the existing 4G equipment, upgraded existing 3G equipment and other means to expand network capacity in selected hotspot areas.

China Unicom commercialised dual-carrier aggregation and pre-commercial launched the tricarrier aggregation in metropolitan areas, peak downlink speed reached 375Mbps.

China Unicom added 30K, reaching a total of 770K 4G BTS.

China Unicom achieved all-fibre network in all 10 provinces in Northern China and deployed 10G PON and other new technologies.

Baburajan K