The competition of fixed network broadband services among the three major operators is getting white hot
China Telecom released its 2015 financial report yesterday, so far, the 2015 performance of China's three major telecom operators has been announced. In 2015, the total revenue of the three operators was 1276.6 billion yuan, an increase of 2% over the previous year; The total net profit reached 139.1 billion yuan, basically the same as that in 2014, with an average daily profit of 380 million yuan.
In terms of business, we can see that the main driving force of the three operators in 2015 was the 4G business, and the number of 4G users increased significantly, while China Mobile was still in an absolute leading position due to its early licensing.
Net profit declines across the board due to policy impact
China Mobile (00941. HK) had a revenue of 668.3 billion yuan in 2015, up 2.6% year on year; Net profit was 108.5 billion yuan, down 0.6% year on year.
China Unicom (00762. HK)'s operating revenue in 2015 was 277.05 billion yuan, down 2.7% year on year; The net profit was 10.56 billion yuan, down 12.4% year on year.
China Telecom (00728. HK)'s revenue in 2015 was 331.202 billion yuan, an increase of 2.1% over last year; The net profit was 20.054 billion yuan, up 13.4% year on year.
Of the 108.5 billion yuan of profits made by China Mobile, 10.1 billion yuan came from the proceeds from selling tower assets to China Tower; China Unicom sold tower related assets to China Tower Co., Ltd., achieving a pre tax income of 9.25 billion yuan; The one-time income from the sale of communication tower and related assets by China Telecom was about 3.937 billion yuan.
If the revenue related to the tower is removed, the decline of net profit of China Mobile Unicom will increase, while that of China Telecom will turn from growth to decline. According to the comprehensive financial reports, the decline of net profit is mainly due to policy factors such as "replacing business tax with value-added tax", "increasing speed and reducing fees" and "the flow is not clear".
Even so, China Mobile is still dominant. Its revenue is more than the other two combined, and its profit is more than three times of the other two combined. Therefore, since the end of 2015, the cooperation between China Unicom and China Telecom has been deepening, and there is a trend to unite and compete with China Mobile.
Focusing on 4G business, 2015 will become the year of 4G development
With the decline of voice services, in the transformation process of the three major operators, emerging services such as data traffic are increasingly valued. In particular, in 2015, the 4G network system was fully launched in China. The three major operators focused on 4G business in 2015. In their financial reports, the three operators' 4G business grew significantly and continued to deepen their efforts in 4G business.
In 2015, the revenue scale of China's mobile data business exceeded voice business for the first time, accounting for 52.0% of the revenue from communication services. Mobile data traffic increased by 143.7% over the previous year, mobile Internet users' DOU (customers' monthly average traffic consumption) increased by 118.5% over the previous year, and wireless Internet access revenue increased by 30.5% over the previous year, to 2009 billion yuan.
In terms of China Unicom, the service revenue of the whole year in 2015 was 235.28 billion yuan, of which the proportion of non voice business increased by 7.2 percentage points year-on-year to 69.1%
In 2015, the revenue of China Telecom's emerging business grew by about 20% year on year, and its revenue contribution continued to increase. The annual mobile Internet traffic revenue reached 47.8 billion yuan, up 40% year on year
In terms of 4G, China Mobile said that it has become the largest operator of 4G users in the world, with a net increase of more than 200 million 4G users and a total number of more than 300 million 4G users in the year. The DOUs of 4G users are 2.2 times that of the overall mobile users.
By the end of 2015, the total number of China Unicom users using 4G network had reached 44.16 million, accounting for 17.5% of mobile account users
The number of 4G end users of China Telecom increased by 51.38 million to 58.46 million; The average monthly traffic of 4G users reached 751MB, up 25% year on year
At the same time, China Mobile and China Unicom mentioned the construction of 4G base stations respectively.
In 2015, the total number of China Mobile 4G base stations was about 1.1 million, achieving continuous coverage above the township level, effective coverage of rural data hotspots, and basically comprehensive coverage of high-speed railways, subways, and key scenic spots, covering more than 1.2 billion people, and the average download rate of urban roads exceeded 37Mbps
In 2015, China Unicom added 306000 4G base stations, with a total of 399000. The 4G network basically achieved continuous coverage in urban areas, counties and developed towns.
From the data of 4G users, China Mobile has nearly twice as many users as the other two companies combined because of its early licensing; While China Unicom and China Telecom both obtained 4G licenses in February 2015, from the data point of view, China Telecom is slightly better at expanding users.
Competition of fixed network broadband services is getting white hot
In 2015, the three major operators cut fees and increased speed on a large scale. The competition for new 4G users was fierce, and the competition for fixed network broadband services was also white hot.
The financial report of China Mobile shows that it has obtained the cable broadband license through the acquisition of the assets and business of China Railcom. After the coordinated development with China Railcom in recent years, the number of cable broadband users has reached 55 million.
In terms of China Unicom, in 2015, China Unicom's fixed network broadband service revenue increased by 7.5% year on year, reaching 53.96 billion yuan; Fixed network broadband users increased by 5.1% year-on-year to 72.33 million.
It is worth mentioning that the quality of fixed network broadband users of China Unicom is very high, FTTH users accounted for more than 50%, and the ARPU value of broadband users reached 63.6 yuan.
As for China Telecom, as of December 2015, the number of fixed network broadband users reached 113.06 million, with a cumulative net increase of 6.11 million.
Previously, China Telecom and China Unicom have always regarded fixed network broadband services as "cash cows" to support the construction and operation of mobile networks, while China Mobile is a weak link in fixed network broadband services; However, this year, China Railcom was incorporated into China Mobile's listed companies, which strengthened China Mobile's broadband business and provided it with the strength to compete with China Unicom.
