Telecom Equipment News
- China Netcom profit rises
Date: 27-Aug-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA Netcom Group Corp. (Hong Kong) Ltd., the nation's second-largest operator of fixed-line phone services, said first-half profit rose on a one-time gain and an increase in high-speed Internet subscribers.
Net income climbed to 5.9 billion yuan (US$777 million), from 5.8 billion yuan a year earlier, the Beijing-based company said last week in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The company said it had income of 624 million yuan from two networks it sold to its parent in February. Sales rose 0.4 percent to 40.7 billion yuan from a restated 40.5 billion yuan.
Chairman Zhang Chunjiang expanded high-speed Web services and Internet television to attract users after growth in fixed-line subscribers slowed. Wireless operators signed up 10 times as many users as Netcom and bigger rival China Telecom Corp. in the first six months of the year after cutting prices.
Broadband is 'the only road they can go down, with mobile-phone tariffs coming down to fixed-line levels,'said Francis Cheung, head of Asian telecom research at CLSA Ltd. in Hong Kong. Six analysts in a Bloomberg survey had a median profit estimate of 5.6 billion yuan.
China gained 4.9 million fixed-line users in the first six months of the year, compared with 40.6 million mobile additions, according to government statistics. At the end of June, China had 372.7 million fixed-line customers and 501.7 million wireless-phone subscribers.
China Netcom is transforming into a 'broadband and broadband-enabled services provider because of 'a drastic turn?in China's telecom industry because of mobile substitution, Zuo Xunsheng, the company's chief executive officer, said at a press briefing in Hong Kong.
Revenue from broadband and Internet-related services in the first six months rose 33.8 percent to 6.6 billion yuan, Netcom said.
The telecom operator has teamed up with Shanghai Media Group, a State-owned broadcaster, to offer television services through the Internet to 150,000 subscribers in five cities in the northern regions including Harbin and Shenyang, Zuo said in June.
China Netcom added 1.04 million fixed-line customers in the first six months for a total of 115.1 million, and gained 2.7 million broadband Internet users, bringing its total high-speed Web subscribers to 17.1 million. China is the world's largest Internet market after the United States, with 162 million users at the end of June.
Both China Netcom and China Telecom operate Little Smart wireless services, which compete in cities with the nation's mobile duopoly. In the first half of the year, Netcom had 29.8 million wireless users, down 4.7 percent from a year earlier, Zuo said.
China Netcom is still waiting for the government to issue a mobile license for 3G services, Zhang said in Hong Kong. The company expects to offer 3G services during the Olympic Games in August 2008, as promised by the government, he said.
past a China Netcom Corp. phone booth in downtown Beijing in this fi le photo.
China Netcom expanded highspeed Web services and Internet television to attract users after growth in fi xed-line subscribers slowed.
China gained 4.9 million fi xedline users in the fi rst six months of the year, compared with 40.6 million mobile additions, according to government statistics.
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