Synopsis

The Chinese telecom market is the largest in the world in terms of subscribers. The mobile sector is still expanding at 5%-10% per annum and 3G services have now gained momentum supported by a more mature value chain. Confronted with a continuous decline in the fixed-line market, the government has intervened to set aggressive targets for broadband services. This report presents key aspects of the China telecom market in 2014. It includes an overview of the regulatory environment, market highlights and comprehensive statistics and fixed-line forecasts to 2018.

Key developments:

• continued strong mobile subscriber growth fast approaching 1.3 billion;
• 3G subscribers accounting for 40% of the mobile subscriber base by end-2014;
• continued decline in fixed-line telephony subscribers and revenue;
• non-voice revenue comprising over 50% of total industry revenue;
• the EU ended its dispute with China over the import of telecommunications equipment;
• MVNO licences issued by the MIIT.

Companies covered in this report include:

China Mobile; China Telecom; China Unicom