China - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Publication Overview

This report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments in China’s telecommunications market. The report analyses the mobile, internet, broadband and converging media sectors. Subjects include:

Market and industry analyses, trends and developments;
Regional market comparisons - BuddeComm's Telecom Maturity Index
Major players;
Market statistics, including for operators;
Industry and regulatory issues;
Infrastructure;
Broadband (FttH, DSL, cable TV, wireless);
Convergence and Digital Media;
Forecasts to 2024 for mobile, mobile broadband and fixed broadband.

Researcher:- Phil Harpur
Current publication date:- August 2019 (25th Edition)

Executive Summary

China a world leader in 5G services rollout

The Chinese telecom market is the largest in the world in terms of subscribers. China's telecommunications development has generally been driven by investments from government-allied entities and features a strong industrial policy.

As the market approaches saturation, there has been a shift of emphasis in China's broadband policy from infrastructure build-up and service provision to application creation and user demand stimulation.

The Chinese telecommunications market is undergoing a rapid transition, and this is driving a fast-developing data centre market. The Chinese data market has been driven by multinational enterprises and international service providers seeking to establish a presence there. However, the country remains largely untapped by private operators and external hyper-scale providers such as Google and AWS.

China’s fixed-line market is in decline due to voice to mobile substitution. Fixed line penetration has dropped significantly over the past five years from 18% in 2014 to 12% in 2019. This trend is predicted to continue over the next five years to 2024 driven by the growing adoption of mobile broadband.

China’s government is aiming for universal and affordable broadband coverage through investment and competition as specified in policies: Private investment in state-controlled industries, Broadband China, and Internet Plus.

Unlike the US market, where cable internet access plays a prominent role in developing the fixed broadband market, DSL was the initial driving force behind fixed broadband growth in China, followed later by EPON fibre and now GPON fibre.

Fixed broadband penetration in China has grown strongly over the past five years. Fibre broadband continues to be the fastest growing broadband segment, as DSL and cable modem access will continue to decline as customers migrate away from these platforms in favour of fibre broadband. Moderate growth is predicted over the next five years to 2024.

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 2019, the number of mobile subscribers had reached over 1.5 billion However, growth is expected to be relatively slower due to a saturated and mature market over the next five years to 2024.

The MIIT has awarded commercial 5G licences to the country’s three mobile network operators (MNOs) – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. China Mobile brought forward plans to launch 5G services commercially, announcing that the service will go live in 50 cities by the end of 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.

Key Developments

The Chinese data centre market is undergoing a rapid transition.
Fixed line penetration has dropped significantly over the past five years.
China's government strengthens IOT policies to boost economic growth.
Fixed broadband penetration in China has grown strongly over the past five years.
Fibre has overtaken DSL to be the key fixed broadband technology platform.
China is projected to become the world's largest 5G market by 2025.
China is predicted to account for more than two-thirds of all 5G connections by 2025.

Key companies mentioned in this report:

China Mobile; China Telecom; China Unicom, Alibaba, JD.com, Baidu, Tencent

Phil Harpur
August 2019

Table of Contents

Key statistics
Telecommunications market

Market overview and analysis
Regional Asian Market Comparison

Regulatory environment

Regulatory authority

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)
China Internet Network Information Centre

Government policies

Private investment in state-controlled industries
Broadband China
Three-network Convergence Policy
Internet Plus

Telecommunications Regulations
Licensing
Interconnect

Local calls and domestic long-distance calls
International long-distance calls
Internet backbone networks
SMS
MMS

Tariff Setting
Universal Service Obligation

Fixed network operators

Introduction
China Telecom
China Unicom
China Mobile
China Tower
CITIC Networks

Telecommunications infrastructure

Overview of the national telecom network
International infrastructure (satellite, submarine)

Terrestrial and submarine cable infrastructure
Satellite infrastructure

Data Centres
IT Equipment Manufacturers
Smart infrastructure

IoT
Smart cities
Connected homes
Connected cars

Broadband market

Market overview and analysis
Broadband statistics and Forecast

Operator broadband subscribers

Government Broadband Policy and Plans
Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) and Fibre-To-The-Home (FttH)

Overview
China Telecom
China Unicom
China Mobile

Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks

Fixed wireless

Digital economy

Introduction
e-Commerce

Digital media

Introduction
Regulation
Key digital media players
Internet Protocol TV (IPTV)
Hybrid fibre coax cable (HFC)
Video streaming

Mobile communications

Market overview and analysis
Mobile statistics

Mobile Statistics and Forecast
Mobile broadband statistics and forecast

Regulatory issues

Licensing
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
VAT Introduction
Roaming Charges

Mobile infrastructure

Second Generation (2G) mobile
Third Generation (3G) mobile
Fourth Generation (4G) mobile
Fifth Generation (5G) mobile
Other infrastructure developments

Major mobile operators

Operators
China Mobile
China Telecom
China Unicom
MVNOs

Mobile content and applications

Rich Communication Services (RCS)
Mobile gaming
m-commerce
m-banking (payments/loans)

List of Tables

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities – 2019 (e)
Table 2 – China Telecom financial data – 2008 – 2019
Table 3 – China Telecom fixed-line, fixed broadband subscribers and ARPU – 2008 – 2019
Table 4 – China Unicom financial data – 2008 – 2019
Table 5 – China Unicom – Fixed line Local access subscribers – 2008 – 2019
Table 6 – Fixed-lines and penetration rate – 2009 – 2019
Table 7 – Total international internet bandwidth – 2007 – 2018
Table 8 – Fixed Broadband Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2009 – 2024
Table 9 – Lit/Equipped International Bandwidth Capacity – 2013 – 2018
Table 10 – China Telecom - fixed broadband subscribers– 2003 – 2019
Table 11 – China Unicom – Fixed line Broadband subscribers – 2008 – 2019
Table 12 – China Mobile – Fixed Line Broadband subscribers – 2017 – 2019
Table 13 – Historic - Number of Broadband Access Ports, Proportion of FTTH Ports – 2010 – 2017
Table 14 – Historic - Number of Fibre Broadband Users – 2012 – 2017
Table 15 – China Telecom – FTTH Subscribers – 2013 – 2018
Table 16 – China Unicom – Fixed broadband subscribers – 2017 - 2019
Table 17 – Historic - Cable TV subscriptions and annual growth – 2008 – 2016
Table 18 – Mobile Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2009 – 2024
Table 19 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and annual change – 1995 - 2008
Table 20 – Mobile Broadband Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2009 – 2024
Table 21 – Mobile subscribers by operator (millions)- 2009 – 2019
Table 22 – Mobile subscriber market share by operator - 2009 – 2019
Table 23 – Mobile subscriber annual growth by operator - 2010 – 2019
Table 24 – China Mobile revenue, capex, EBITDA margin, net profit – 2009 – 2018
Table 25 – China Mobile ARPU – 2008 – 2018
Table 26 – China Mobile subscribers – 2008 – 2019
Table 27 – China Telecom mobile and 3G/4G subscribers and ARPU – 2008 – 2019
Table 28 – China Unicom - 4G and total subscribers – 2014 – 2019
Table 29 – Historic - China Unicom 2G and 3G/4G subscribers – 2002 – 2015
Table 30 – China Unicom – ARPU per month– 2008 – 2019

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Mobile, Mobile Broadband & Fixed Broadband Penetration – 2019; 2024
Chart 2 – Asian Telecoms Maturity Index by Market Category
Chart 3 – Asian Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per Capita
Chart 4 – Telecoms Maturity Index – Northern Asia
Chart 5 – Fixed-line and penetration rate – 2009 – 2019
Chart 6 – Fixed Broadband Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2009 – 2024
Chart 7 – Mobile Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2009 - 2024
Chart 8 – Mobile Broadband Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2009 - 2024
Chart 9 – Mobile subscriber market share by operator - 2009 - 2019

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – Key Market Characteristics by Market Segment
Exhibit 2 – Northern Asia - Key Characteristics of Telecoms Markets by Country
Exhibit 3 – Regional/international fibre optic cable networks
Exhibit 4 – Selected Chinese satellite service providers and satellites
Exhibit 5 – China Satcom satellite fleet

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Annual Publication Profile

Technologies

Broadband Fixed
Broadcasting
Companies (Major Players)
Digital Media
Internet
Mobile & Wireless Broadband and Media
Mobile Communications (voice and infrastructure)
Regulations & Government Policies
Strategies & Analyses (Industry & Markets)
Telecoms Infrastructure

Number of pages 150

Status Current

Last updated 28 Aug 2019
Update History

Analyst: Phil Harpur

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