We keep hearing China’s monthly mobile subscriber figures, each time with the totals reaching ever more impressive heights. In the first quarter of this year, the country passed a billion total subscribers, something that got everyone’s attention. But 3G is where the true action is these days, and each month I always wonder how the three major telecom’s growth would look over the past year or more.
So this morning I jumped down the rabbit hole of China’s 3G subscriber numbers, and plotted the monthly totals for each of the three major telecoms – China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom – since January of 2011. You can view them in the chart below [1].
[Download image version of chart]
While the numbers are pretty stunning for each, neither company appears to be running away from the others. Although China Mobile is currently the only carrier that doesn’t have an iPhone, so things could change if they strike a deal with Apple.
The figures look even more impressive when the three carriers are combined for a national total of 3G subscribers. Note that the total for 3G subscribers now stands at a whopping 175 million:
[Download image version of chart]
If you look at the monthly subscriber numbers and calculate a month-on-month growth rate [2] then we see that while still pretty impressive currently, it is tapering off a little since 2011. It will be interesting to watch if this changes as newer and more affordable smartphone offerings come to market though. This is not a market that I would expect to stall.
[Download image version of chart]
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Data accumulated from Marbridge Consulting and Reuters. You can download the raw data here: [subscribers, growth (csv format)] ↩
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For this month for example, it would be (June subscribers – May subscribers) / May subscribers. ↩
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