Chinese mobile market grows apace

THE WORLD'S largest mobile operator, China Mobile, added an astonishing 68.1 million new subscribers in 2007 bringing its total to 360 million.

The most impressive part is the ratio of revenues it derives from non-voice services. 25.7 per cent of the total revenues were derived from value-added services like polyphonic ring-back tones, text and multimedia messaging plus the mobile internet.

Revenues from these services rose 32.2 per cent to about $13 billion. Which was handy because over half the new subscribers came from rural areas who are mainly lower paying customers.

It also made up for revenue lost from the government mandating lower roaming fees and encouraging free incoming call packages.
Naturally there was still no firm news about what the Chinese government intends to do about 3G.

Testing of China's own 3G technology – TD-SCDMA – continues at a snail's pace. Market trials of TD-SCDMA networks built in eight Olympic cities are due to begin next month (April).

Company president and CEO, Wang Jianzhou, claimed he had not received a detailed proposal from the Chinese government concerning the long-rumoured industry restructuring (see INQ passim).

China Mobile's figures mean that there were now 547 million mobile phone users as of Q1 2008, although the Chinese Ministry of Information said that figure is expected to surpass 600 million by 2010.

Six hundred million is a big market for anything. Let alone mobile phones. µ

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