Largest Chinese Operators Exceed 250 Million 5G Users

Largest Chinese Operators Exceed 250 Million 5G Users
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Two largest operators in China, China Mobile and China Telecom, ended 2020 with a combined 251.5 million 5G subscribers. Their respective penetration rates reached 17.5 and 24.6 percent.

The market leader added 17.6 million 5G package customers in December 2020, taking its annual total to 165 million. China Telecom added 7 million, ending the year with 86.5 million. Despite its 5G package lead, China Mobile’s overall subscriber base fell 8.2 million in 2020 to 941.9 million.

China Telecom users increased 4.6 percent year-on-year to 351 million, with China Unicom losing 12.7 million for a total of 305.8 million. China Unicom is yet to release 5G numbers. The operators launched 5G services in late October 2019 and by end-2020 had deployed nearly 800,000 sites. They plan to add 600,000 this year.