China Tower booked gains during Q1, with its smart tower and energy units leading revenue increases as its traditional tower business registered modest growth.

In a statement, chairman Zhang Zhiyong explained China Tower continued to strengthen resource sharing to support the expansion of the country’s 5G networks.

The company added 18,000 sites year-on-year to end March with 2.05 million under management. Total tenants rose by 96,000 to 3.5 million, pushing the average number per tower from 1.68 in Q1 2021 to 1.7.

Net profit improved 28.7 per cent to CNY2.2 billion ($343.1 million), while operating revenue increased 7 per cent to CNY22.6 billion.

Smart tower revenue rose 34.9 per cent to CNY1.2 billion and sales from its energy unit increased 70.3 per cent to CNY642 million.

Revenue from its tower business increased 3.1 per cent to CNY20.8 billion though its contribution to overall turnover declined from 89 per cent in Q1 2021 to 85.7 per cent. Indoor distributed antenna system sales grew 35.7 per cent to CNY1.3 billion.