China Telecom saw strong growth from its mobile business during 2011, noting that this has now become the largest service it offers.

In a statement, the operator said that it “firmly seized the valuable market opportunities arising from the rapidly proliferating mobile internet applications.”

During 2011, China Telecom “comprehensively promoted the terminal-driven market model, and leveraged on 3G to lead the mobile service development.”

It ended the year with 126.47 million subscribers, up 39.7 percent from 90.52 million at the end of 2010.

The company said that its subscriber growth saw it become the world’s largest CDMA operator.

Its 3G subscriber base almost tripled in size to 36.29 million from 12.29 million, now accounting for 28.7 percent of its total. Its 3G market share (28.5 percent) was also significantly higher than its total mobile market share (13 percent).

The company announced a net profit of CNY16.5 billion (US$2.61 billion) for 2011, up 11.1 percent from CNY14.85 billion, on operating revenue of CNY245.04 billion, up 11.7 percent from CNY219.37 billion.

According to Dow Jones Newswires, China Telecom’s profit was below analyst forecasts, due to increased costs promoting mobile services. The company recently added Apple’s iPhone to its handset portfolio.

Mobile service revenue was CNY68.25 billion, up 43 percent from CNY47.72 billion, accounting for 27.9 percent of the company’s 2011 operating revenue. Mobile data service revenue increased by 57.4 percent year-on-year, compared with 33.6 percent growth for mobile voice.

In a statement, Wang Xiaochu, chairman of the company, said the commercialisation of new mobile internet services, cloud computing, and the “internet of things,” are opening new areas for development.

Aside from its mobile activities, the company is also seeing a robust performance from its fixed broadband unit, although revenue declines continue in its wireline voice business.