The first quarter of the three operators: China Unicom turned around, China Mobile slowed down, and the pattern remained unchanged

On the 27th, China Telecom released its first quarter financial report for 2018. Combined with the performance results previously released by China Mobile and China Unicom, the operating fundamentals of the three operators in the first quarter were derived.

In terms of financial indicators, the revenue and profit of the three operators all increased, but there were differences in details. In terms of revenue, China Mobile had the fastest growth rate, only 0.8%, China Unicom had the fastest growth, up 8.59% year-on-year, China Telecom's revenue increased by 5.6% year-on-year, of which service revenue increased by 7.1% year-on-year. In terms of profit, China Unicom's net profit was 1.302 billion yuan, up 374.75% year-on-year, China Mobile and China Telecom increased by 4.1% and 6.5% year-on-year respectively.

The three operators achieved a good start in the first quarter of 2018, and China Unicom achieved a major turnaround in performance. "Our revenue, cash flow and profits have all achieved rapid growth. Operating data shows that we have turned around," said Wang Xiaochu, chairman of China Unicom.

As reflected in user data, the number of mobile users of the three operators all increased by tens of millions.

Data shows that China Mobile's total number of mobile business customers reached 899 million, with a net increase of 11.34 million in the quarter, and the number of 4G users reached 672 million, with a net increase of 22 million in the quarter; China Telecom's mobile users reached 265.3 million, with a net increase of 15.34 million in the quarter, of which 4G users reached 200.26 million, with a net increase of 18.22 million in the quarter. China Unicom's Wang Card, a collaboration with Tencent, currently has nearly 100 million users.

Traffic growth is significant. China Telecom's total mobile Internet traffic was 2.178 million TB, up 38.1% quarterly and 343% year-on-year; the average monthly traffic of 4G users was 3,907 MB. China Mobile's mobile Internet traffic was 5,165.8 billion MB, up 17.0% quarterly and 139% year-on-year; the average monthly Internet traffic per user was 2,234 MB, up 17.9% quarterly and 123% year-on-year.

The wired broadband market is facing changes. Currently, China Telecom has a net increase of nearly 6 million broadband users, reaching a total of 160 million (of which nearly 140 million are users of its listed companies). In contrast, China Mobile has a total of 124 million wired broadband customers, with a net increase of 11.23 million per quarter. According to this trend, China Mobile may surpass Telecom and take the top spot in the broadband market in less than half a year.