China's mobile market is moving into a new stage characterised by low subscriber and profit growth. This is reflected in the slower growth in China's overall subscriber base and falling margins as China's three big operators resort to price competition to grow the number of subscribers or to respond to competitive threats.
By early 2020 the number of mobile subscribers had broached 1.58 billion. Growth in the number of subscribers is expected to be relatively slower in coming years due to a saturated and mature market. Market penetration is predicted to reach 134% by 2024.
The MIIT has awarded commercial 5G licences to the country's three mobile network operators (MNOs) China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, which all launched commercial services in November 2019.
Mobile broadband has seen very strong growth in China over the past five years. Proliferation of LTE and improving affordability of smartphones is driving growth both in mobile broadband subscribers as well as the amount of traffic used per subscriber. The mobile broadband market will be driven by increasingly faster speeds offered by the mobile operators as they roll out their 4G and 5G networks and improving tariffs due to strong competition.
China has emerged as one of the most aggressive countries promoting 5G and is predicted to be one of the top four of markets that will drive the growth of 5G in Asia and is projected to become the world's largest 5G market by 2025.
The major Chinese internet companies will lead the way introducing advanced consumer services based on 4K and 8K videos, as well as augmented and virtual reality technologies, on the new 5G networks. Other drivers for 5G in China include smart city initiatives that make use of artificial intelligence for public safety, traffic management and disaster management.
Key Developments:
This report update includes operators data to March 2020, recent market developments.
Companies covered in this report include:
China Mobile; China Telecom; China Unicom
By early 2020 the number of mobile subscribers had broached 1.58 billion. Growth in the number of subscribers is expected to be relatively slower in coming years due to a saturated and mature market. Market penetration is predicted to reach 134% by 2024.
The MIIT has awarded commercial 5G licences to the country's three mobile network operators (MNOs) China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, which all launched commercial services in November 2019.
Mobile broadband has seen very strong growth in China over the past five years. Proliferation of LTE and improving affordability of smartphones is driving growth both in mobile broadband subscribers as well as the amount of traffic used per subscriber. The mobile broadband market will be driven by increasingly faster speeds offered by the mobile operators as they roll out their 4G and 5G networks and improving tariffs due to strong competition.
China has emerged as one of the most aggressive countries promoting 5G and is predicted to be one of the top four of markets that will drive the growth of 5G in Asia and is projected to become the world's largest 5G market by 2025.
The major Chinese internet companies will lead the way introducing advanced consumer services based on 4K and 8K videos, as well as augmented and virtual reality technologies, on the new 5G networks. Other drivers for 5G in China include smart city initiatives that make use of artificial intelligence for public safety, traffic management and disaster management.
Key Developments:
- China projected to become the worlds largest 5G market by 2025;
- Regulator issues three new licences to encourage sharing spectrum for 5G indoor coverage;
- China Mobile reporting having over 32 million 5G subscribers;
- COVID-19 pandemic stimulates use of 5G-enabled hardware;
This report update includes operators data to March 2020, recent market developments.
Companies covered in this report include:
China Mobile; China Telecom; China Unicom
Table of Contents
1 Market overview and analysis7 Appendix Historic data8 Related reports
2 Mobile statistics
3 Regulatory issues
4 Mobile infrastructure
5 Major mobile operators
6 Mobile content and applications
List of Tables
List of Charts
Companies Mentioned
- China Mobile
- China Telecom
- China Unicom
