China Mobile’s bottom and top-line in Q1 benefitted from strong demand for handsets driven by continued uptake of 5G packages.

The operator ended March with 467 million 5G package subscribers, up 278 million year-on-year. The number with both compatible handsets and service plans grew 140 million to 233 million.

Overall service revenue increased 9.1 per cent to CNY193.8 billion ($29.9 billion), with product sales up 61.6 per cent to CNY33.6 billion.

Net profit rose 6.5 per cent to CNY25.6 billion, as operating revenue grew 14.6 per cent to CNY227.3 billion.

Mobile ARPU was flat at CNY47.50, while average data usage increased 16.1 per cent to 13GB a month.

Total voice usage declined 1.1 per cent to 708.6 billion minutes: SMS usage increased 6.2 per cent to 224.3 billion messages.

Its total mobile subscribers increased 2.9 per cent to 967 million.