China Mobile booked a decline in profit and broadly flat revenue for Q1, as rising costs in its highly competitive home market took their toll on its bottom-line.

The company reported an 8 per cent year-on-year decline in Q1 net profit to CNY23.7 billion ($3.5 billion) on revenue of CNY185 billion.

During the quarter, it added 6.32 million customers bringing its total mobile base to 931 million, 723 million of which were on 4G plans.

The company attributed the decreased profit to rising costs on “inflexible items” and a small dip in year-on-year mobile revenue due partly to cancellation of domestic data roaming charges in July 2018.

In a statement, China Mobile said it would “continue to step-up measures to reduce costs and enhance efficiency with a special focus on deploying resources with precision and high effectiveness, striking a balance between the group’s short-term performance and long-term development”.

The company added it operated in a “highly competitive mobile market” and had taken measures to stabilise its position by “proactively implementing reforms in data traffic operations, promoting large data products and boosting overall customer perception”.

During the quarter China Mobile continued efforts to sell bundled fixed and mobile services to customers.

At its annual results event in March, newly appointed China Mobile chairman Yang Jie said the company would strive to achieve stable and favourable growth during 2019.

The operator and its two domestic rivals each booked year-on-year increases in net profit during 2018.