China Mobile Ltd, the world’s biggest wireless carrier by subscribers, reported a 3.5 percent rise in first-quarter net profit as an increase mobile data use helped offset the impact of handset subsidies and declining voice revenue.
The carrier posted a net profit of CNY27.8 billion (USD4.4B) for the January-March quarter in a statement on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday. That was roughly in line an average forecast of CNY28.2b from three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters and up from CNY26.9b a year earlier.
China Mobile competes with China Unicom and China Telecom Corp Ltd in the world’s biggest mobile phone market, which reached 1 billion users this year.
(Source: CNBC)