China Unicom announced a profit jump of 26 per cent for the first half of 2014, as it focused on markets such as mobile broadband, against the backdrop of a “changing market environment and a slowing-down industry”.

The company reported a profit for the first half of CNY6.69 billion ($1.09 billion), on revenue of CNY149.57 billion, up 3.6 per cent year-on-year.

Service revenue was CNY126.97 billion, up 9 per cent. Mobile service revenue was CNY81.34 billion, up 11.7 per cent, with mobile broadband service revenue at CNY54.38 billion, up 32.9 per cent.

In a statement, China’s second-biggest mobile player said that “continuous revenue growth” and an “improvement in business structure” bolstered its profitability. It also benefited from a 23.7 per cent drop in interconnection revenue, to CNY7.57 billion.

In addition, the operator said that its “overall financial status turned more solid”.

With regard to its mobile activities, it said that it took a number of measures designed to respond to the competitive environment, including enhancing its mobile broadband user experience, rolling out a combined 3G/4G operation, optimising its product portfolio and tariff plans to “tap data value”, improving retention, and bolstering its “all round user experiences”.

It ended the period with 295 million mobile subscribers, having added 14.02 million during the six months. Some 47.7 per cent of the total were categorised as mobile broadband customers.

The company’s fixed unit saw a service revenue increase of 4.5 per cent to CNY45.21 billion, of which almost 78 per cent was non-voice. It said it had “pushed forward bundled mobile and fixed broadband services”.