China Mobile booked sales growth in all business units during H1 and forecast continued strong 5G adoption after adding 130 million network customers during the period.

Net profit rose 8.4 per cent year-on-year to CNY76.2 billion ($10.6 billion) and operating revenue 6.8 per cent to CNY530.7 billion.

Mobile service revenue rose 1.8 per cent to CNY305.6 billion, with overall ARPU flat at CNY52.40 and the 5G figure down 4.6 per cent to CNY81.10.

It ended June with 393 million 5G network customers and expects a similar number of net adds in H2.

The H1 increase was down from 136 million in H1 2022.

Its total mobile user base rose 1 per cent to 985 million.

Average monthly data consumption increased 14.8 per cent to 15.5GB.

Digital transformation (DT) sales rose 19.6 per cent to CNY132.6 billion, accounting for 29.3 per cent of telecoms services revenue compared with 26 per cent.

Within DT category, cloud revenue grew 80.5 per cent to CNY42.2 billion and private 5G networks 69.7 per cent to CNY2.5 billion.

Consumer broadband revenue grew 9.3 per cent CNY64.9 billion, with household connections up 11.2 million to 255 million. Smart home network customers grew 50.1 per cent and home security 40.6 per cent.

Capex dropped 11.5 per cent to CNY81.4 billion, with 52 per cent earmarked for its 5G network.

The company deployed 301,000 5G base stations to take the total to near 1.8 million.

Full-year capex is forecast to decline slightly to CNY183.2 billion.