Figures from China’s big three mobile operators show they added 17.2 million 4G subscribers in October, taking their combined LTE total to 967 million.
Net 4G additions in the month were down from 18.4 million in September and 23.3 million in August. LTE now accounts for 69 per cent of the country’s total mobile subscribers.
At the current pace of uptake, the country will surpass the 1 billion milestone in December.
Market leader China Mobile added 6.9 million LTE subscribers in October, giving it nearly 629 million or 65 per cent of the country’s total. China Unicom added 5.1 million to end October with 165.4 million, while close rival China Telecom picked up 5.2 million taking its total to almost 173 million.
All three operators’ total mobile subscriber numbers increased by 9.8 million during the month, leaving them with a combined total of 1.41 billion.
The operators’ figures exclude M2M but may include multiple SIMs per user, so the unique subscriber numbers may be lower.
Source: https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia/asia-news/4g-subs-account-for-69-of-china-total/