Mobile proved to be the continued growth driver for China’s second biggest operator, China Unicom, in the first half of 2013, a period which saw it pass the 100 million 3G subscriber mark.

With the company having 262.17 million subscribers in total, this means that its 3G subscribers make up 38.15 per cent of its total.

The company announced a net profit of CNY5.32 billion ($868.62 million) for the year, up 55 per cent over H1 2012, on revenue of CNY144.31 billion, up 18.6 per cent.

Its mobile revenue increased by 26.2 per cent to CNY100.65 billion, making up 69 per cent of its total, with fixed-line revenue up 4.2 per cent to CNY43.29 billion.

Service revenue was CNY116.48 billion, up 13.8 per cent. Service revenue from the mobile unit was CNY72.85 billion, up 20.5 per cent, with 3G making up 56.2 per cent of the total – an increase from 44.5 per cent in the first half of 2012.

In a statement, the company said it had “proactively promoted [an] integrated mobile operation and accelerated 2G/3G integrated development to drive the scale business growth”.

The company said that to support future growth it has enhanced its network capabilities “with a focus on network architecture as well as mobile, broadband and transmission networks, so as to strengthen its network advantages in broadband and mobile internet”.

During the period, the company added 33,000 new 3G base stations, and added HSPA+ 21Mb/s across its whole network, with 42Mb/s support at “some urban hot spot areas”.

Away from its mobile operation, the company said that broadband upgrades were driving the steady growth in fixed line revenue, with broadband service revenue increasing by 10.4 per cent year-on-year to CNY22.58 billion, to make up more than 50 per cent of fixed line revenue.