China’s big three operators – China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – added another 24.3 million 4G subscribers in May, boosting their total net additions during the opening five months of 2017 to 102 million.

The country now counts nearly 864 million LTE users, representing 63.6 per cent of total mobile subscribers.

China Mobile continued to expand its lead, adding 14 million 4G connections in May and 48 million since the beginning of the year. It ended May with 583 million LTE users, or 68 per cent of its total of 863 million subs.

Number two operator China Unicom picked up 5.6 million 4G users last month, for a year-to-date increase of 28.8 million. The operator’s LTE subscriber base stood at 133.4 million at end-May, accounting for 54 per cent of its 268 million total user base.

China Telecom stayed ahead of rival China Unicom in terms of 4G subscriber additions, ending May with 147 million 4G users after adding 4.7 million LTE users during the month and 25.4 million over the first five months of 2017.

With a net addition of 12 million mobile users during the period, it ended May with 227 million total connections.