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 telecoms Infrastructure, mobile, fixed broadband, digital media and digital economy sectors. Subjects include:

Market and industry analyses, trends and developments;
Regional market comparisons
Telecoms Maturity Index
Industry and regulatory issues;
Infrastructure;
Major players, revenues, subscribers, ARPU;
Mobile voice and data markets;
Broadband (FTTH, DSL);
Internet of Things, 5G developments
Mobile, broadband and mobile broadband forecasts to 2023.

Researcher:- Phil Harpur
Current publication date:- August 2018 (24th Edition)

Executive Summary

China to lead the world in 5G investments

As the Chinese 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.

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. This trend is predicted to continue over the next five years to 2023 driven by the growing adoption of mobile broadband.

In early 2018 the Chinese government updated its list of ‘sensitive sectors’ for outbound investment, removing telecoms operations from the list.

China is projected to lead spending on Internet of Things technologies in the Asia Pacific, driven by the agriculture and healthcare sectors. China’s government is aiming for universal and affordable broadband coverage through investment and competition as specified in policies.

Fixed broadband penetration in China has grown strongly over the past five years. Fibre broadband continues to be the fastest growing fixed broadband segment, as DSL and cable modem access will continue to decline as customers migrate away from these platforms in favour of fibre broadband. There was very strong growth in fibre connections from 2012 to 2017.

Within China one of the largest drivers of economic growth is its increasing urbanisation rate as rural residents move to cities in search of economic opportunities. Urban residents earn three times the income of rural residents in China.

Moderate growth is predicted over the next five years in the fixed broadband segment for the 2018 to 2023 time-period.

Much of the initial growth in China’s digital economy was underpinned by the online demand for information, media and commerce, giving rise to China’s three domestic digital economy giants; Baidu (search), Alibaba (e-commerce) and Tencent (social media). Also evolving within China’s digital economy to meet the needs of China’s online audience are the banking and financial services industry, public administration services, health services and education services. China has the world’s largest e-commerce market and online retail sales are forecasted to grow strongly.

Although China boasts the largest mobile market in the world, there is still much room for growth given the focus on large scale mobile broadband investment.

Mobile subscriber growth is expected to be slower due to a saturated and mature market over the next five years to 2023. Operators will continue to focus on increasing ARPU in light of diminishing opportunities to acquire new subscribers and the need for operators to maximise monetization of 4G and 5G investments.

In the short term the need to adequately serve subscribers based on handset type influences the allocation of limited radio frequency resources between the three technology platforms. In the medium to long term the need to maximise revenue is driving strategies encouraging subscribers to migrate to higher paying 4G and 5G products based on mobile broadband.

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. This strong growth is expected to continue over the next five years to 2023 but at an increasing slower growth rate due to a fast maturing market. 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 projected to become the world’s largest 5G market by 2025, as networks are rolled out in urban areas and handset vendors integrate 5G chipsets into mobile devices. China is predicted to account for more than two-thirds of all 5G connections by 2025. The Chinese government is a major driving force behind the country’s adoption of IoT with plans such as the “Made in China 2025” strategy. Government backing of 5G, artificial intelligence and data analytics is driving the rapid development of IoT in Greater China and the region is predicted to dominate “industrial IoT.”

Key Developments

China's government strengthens IOT policies to boost economic growth.
China is projected to lead spending on Internet of Things technologies in the Asia Pacific
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's massive online population allows a number of social media platforms to flourish.
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.
Mobile broadband has seen very strong growth in China over the past five years.

Key companies mentioned in this report:

China Mobile; China Telecom; China Unicom, Alibaba, JD.com, Baidu, Tencent, SINA, Weibo, Sohu, Xiaomi, Meilishuo, Mogujie, RenRen, Youku, Iqiyi/Qiyi, V.QQ.com, BesTV, Apple

Phil Harpur
August 2018

Table of Contents

Key statistics
Telecommunications market

Market overview and analysis
Regional Asian market comparison
Historical overview

China’s telecom market – 1980s and 1990s
China’s telecom market – 2000 – 2007
China’s telecom market – 2008 – 2012

Regulatory environment

Historic overview
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
IOT / M2M

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
Competition issues

New Telecommunications Licenses

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 grids
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
Online activities
e-Commerce

Alibaba
JD.com
China Unicom

e-Banking
e-payments

e-Government
e-Health
e-Education

Digital media

Introduction
Regulation
Key digital media players

Baidu
Tencent
SINA
Weibo
Sohu

Television broadcasting
Internet Protocol TV (IPTV)
Hybrid fibre coax cable (HFC)
Video streaming
Social media
Online gaming and gambling

Mobile communications

Market overview and analysis
Mobile statistics

Mobile Statistics and Forecast
Mobile broadband

Regulatory issues

Licensing
Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
VAT Introduction
Roaming Charges

Mobile infrastructur

Second Generation (2G) mobile
Third Generation (3G) mobile
Fourth Generation (4G) mobile
Fifth Generation (5G) mobile
Other infrastructure developments
IoT and M2M networks

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)
Mobile Advertising
m-TV
Apps

List of Tables

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities – 2018 (e)
Table 2 – Historic - Telecom industry revenue and fixed asset investment
Table 3 – China Telecom financial data – 2001 – 2017
Table 4 – China Telecom revenue breakdown – 2009 – 2017
Table 5 – China Telecom fixed-line, fixed broadband subscribers and ARPU – 2004 – 2018
Table 6 – China Unicom financial data – 2001 – 2017
Table 7 – China Unicom – Fixed line Local access subscribers – 2008 – 2018
Table 8 – Fixed-lines and penetration rate – 1998 – 2018
Table 9 - Total international internet bandwidth – 2007 – 2018
Table 10 – Historic - International outlet bandwidth for key networks
Table 11 – Fixed Broadband Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2003 – 2023
Table 12 – Internet users, penetration and annual change – 1996 – 2018
Table 13 – Urban and Rural Internet users – 2013 – 2017
Table 14 – Lit/Equipped International Bandwidth Capacity – 2013 – 2018
Table 15 – Proportion of Broadband Subscribers by Access Speed – 2013 – 2017
Table 16 – Average Download Speed of Fixed Broadband / 4G Network – 2014 – 2017
Table 17 – Internet access by Internet access device type – 2013 – 2017
Table 18 – Internet access locations for computers – 2013 – 2017
Table 19 – China Telecom - fixed broadband subscribers– 2003 – 2018
Table 20 – China Unicom – Fixed line Broadband subscribers – 2008 – 2018
Table 21 – China Mobile – Fixed Line Broadband subscribers – 2017 – 2018
Table 22 – Number of Broadband Access Ports, Proportion of FTTH Ports – 2010 – 2017
Table 23 – Number of Fibre Broadband Users – 2012 – 2017
Table 24 – China Telecom – FTTH Subscribers – 2013 – 2018
Table 25 – Historic - DSL internet subscribers – 2000 – 2014
Table 26 – Online shopping users and utilisation rate – 2009 - 2017
Table 27 – Usage rates of internet applications – 2012 - 2017
Table 28 – Historic - Cable TV subscriptions and annual growth – 1996 – 2016
Table 29 – Historic - Digital cable TV subscribers and penetration rate – 2002 – 2016
Table 30 – Usage rates of social networking applications – 2016 – 2017
Table 31 – Mobile Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2003 – 2023
Table 32 – Historic - Mobile subscribers and annual change – 1995 – 2002
Table 33 – Mobile Broadband Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2009 – 2023
Table 34 –– Mobile subscribers by operator - 2002 – 2018
Table 35 – Mobile subscriber market share by operator - 2002 – 2018
Table 36 – China Mobile revenue, capex, EBITDA margin, net profit – 2000 – 2017
Table 37 – CAPEX breakdown – 2017 – 2018
Table 38 – China Mobile ARPU – 1997 – 2017
Table 39 – China Mobile subscribers – 1997 – 2018
Table 40 – China Mobile - 3G and 4G subscribers – 2015 – 2018
Table 41 – China Telecom mobile and 3G/4G subscribers and ARPU – 2002 – 2018
Table 42 – China Unicom - 4G and total subscribers – 2014 – 2018
Table 43 – Historic - China Unicom 2G and 3G/4G subscribers – 2002 – 2015
Table 44 – China Unicom - ARPU– 2008 – 2018

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Asian Telecoms Maturity Index by Market Category
Chart 2 – Asian Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per Capita
Chart 3 – Telecoms Maturity Index – Northern Asia
Chart 4 – Fixed-line and penetration rate – 2007 – 2018
Chart 5 – Fixed Broadband Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2008 – 2023
Chart 6 – Internet users and penetration – 2007 – 2018
Chart 7 – Mobile Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2008 – 2023
Chart 8 – Mobile Broadband Subscribers and Penetration (with Forecast) – 2009 – 2023
Chart 9 – Mobile subscriber market share by operator - 2002 – 2018

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – Key Market Characteristics by Market Segment
Exhibit 2 – Northern Asia - Key Characteristics of Telecoms Markets by Country
Exhibit 3 – Restructuring of China’s telecommunications industry
Exhibit 4 – Regional/international fibre optic cable networks
Exhibit 5 – Selected Chinese satellite service providers and satellites
Exhibit 6 – 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 192

Status Current

Last updated 27 Aug 2018
Update History

Analyst: Phil Harpur

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China - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

China to lead the world in 5G investments

Key Developments

Key companies mentioned in this report:

Key statistics

Telecommunications market

Regulatory environment

Fixed network operators

Telecommunications infrastructure

Broadband market

Digital economy

Digital media

Mobile communications