China Mobile announced solid results for the first quarter of 2013, against a backdrop of “various difficulties and challenges arising from the increasing mobile penetration rate, unprecedentedly intense market competition and more apparent substitution of traditional communication business by new technologies and new businesses”.

The company reported a profit attributable to shareholders of CNY27.88 billion ($4.51 billion), up just 0.3 per cent year-on-year, on operating revenue of CNY134.7 billion, up 5.7 per cent.

It ended the period with 726.3 million users, up 16 million during the three months. It had 114.4 million 3G subscribers, representing around 16 per cent of its customer base.

However, it observed that the number of low usage customers had increased, and the trend of “one customer with multiple SIM cards” became more and more popular – pressuring monthly ARPU. For the first quarter this was CNY63, down from CNY71 in the prior sequential period.

China Mobile said that during the period it “focused its efforts on TD [3G] terminal sales” and enhanced its marketing. The company also “made efforts to develop potential growth in the voice business”, with total voice usage up 3.9 per cent year-on-year.

It also noted that wireless data traffic increased by 1.6 times year-on-year, as services such as mobile mailbox, mobile reading, and mobile video “maintained a favourable growth momentum”.