China Tower profited from the country’s accelerated deployment of 5G networks and growth in segments outside of its traditional tower business in H1.

In a statement, chairman Tong Jilu said it continued to focus on quality enhancements by increasing investment efficiency and optimising cost management to ensure it maintained stable revenue growth while steadily improving operating efficiency.

Net profit grew 16.9 per cent year-on-year to CNY2.98 billion ($428.4 million) and operating revenue rose 4.8 per cent to CNY39.79 billion.

Tower business turnover edged up 1.6 per cent to CNY36.37 million, its indoor distributed antenna system (DAS) unit increased 37.2 per cent to CNY1.72 billion and sales from the trans-sector site application and information (TSSAI) business jumped 49.9 per cent to CNY1.26 billion.

Tong said the TSSAI growth confirmed its transition from providing standard resource leasing to offering integrated information services including video surveillance, field supervision, edge access and data monitoring.

The company managed 2.01 million tower sites nationwide at end-June, up 3.1 per cent, while the total number of tenants increased 1.2 per cent to 3.12 million, pushing the average tenancy per tower to 1.64 from 1.58 at end H1 2019.

Its DAS business increased in-building coverage by 63.4 per cent to 3.12 billion square metres. Coverage of subways and high-speed railway tunnels increased 55.2 per cent and 39.9 per cent to 4,827km and 6,122km respectively.

China Mobile custom contributed 50.7 per cent of total revenue, China Telecom 23.7 per cent and China Unicom 21.9 per cent.

The tower company said 97 per cent of 5G construction for the three operators was delivered through the sharing of existing resources.