China Unicom, the second largest mobile operator in the country, issued a profit alert forecasting its 2017 net profit to increase 193 per cent year-on-year to CNY1.83 billion ($289 million).

The operator said in a statement that, excluding a loss of about CNY2.9 billion related to a fibre network upgrade, its profit for the year would have been about CNY4 billion. Overall service revenue was expected to increase 2.6 per cent year-on-year to CNY249 billion, while selling and marketing expenses, and handset subsidies dropped.

It added 20.34 million mobile subscribers to end 2017 with a total of 284 million. 4G subs increased by 70.3 million to 175 million.

“The group transformed the development model of its mobile service by stepping up online sales efforts…to enhance the quality of new subscribers. With a low-cost and subsidy-light customer acquisition model, the group achieved faster development of mobile service,” it stated.

China Unicom is scheduled to release full 2017 results soon.