China Mobile, the largest operator in the world, topped the 700 million 4G subscriber mark last month after adding 5.1 million new accounts – meaning 76 per cent of its base now uses LTE.

The operator now accounts for nearly 22 per cent of total global LTE connections, based on Q3 data from GSMA Intelligence. It has added 51 million 4G subs since the beginning of the year.

Its total sub base rose slightly to 919 million at end-October.

Rivals China Telecom and China Unicom added an average of 5.2 million and 4.1 million 4G subs a month, respectively, since the beginning of January, but growth slowed in the past two months.

China Telecom ended October with 234 million LTE subs, while China Unicom had 216 million.

Together, the three mobile players represent about 36 per cent of worldwide LTE connections.