China Mobile Ltd’s revenue rose in the first half as the coronavirus pandemic prompted industries to accelerate steps toward digitalization, boosting demand at the country’s biggest phone company.

Operating revenue gained 0.1 per cent to 389.9 billion yuan ($56 billion) for the six months ended June, the state-owned company said in a statement Thursday. Net income fell 0.5 per cent to 55.8 billion yuan.

China Mobile’s investment in building a 5G network is starting to pay off as customers upgrading to the high-speed service end up spending more.

The carrier is also adding more 5G users along with rivals China Telecom Corp and China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd, which are sharing networks for the latest-generation service. China Unicom shares soared Thursday after the company reported profit that jumped 38 per cent in the three months ended June to the highest in more than a decade.

The first-half profit decline extends an earnings slump for the carrier. China Mobile’s net income last year fell 9.5 per cent, its biggest annual drop since 2014, after the government mandated price cuts.

China Mobile’s shares rose as much as 5.9 per cent Thursday in Hong Kong trading. The stock is down 8.5 per cent this year, compared with an 11 per cent drop for the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

Source: Indianexpress

 

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Huawei Telecommunications, the electronics giant, has partnered up with telecom operators from China, to brings the newer and faster bandwidth, 5G network, to Mount Everest.

The installation of equipment required to enable 5G services on the world's tallest mountain has been completed at two Everest camps. China Mobile said that the pending work of setting up 5G base stations at the forward camp at an altitude of 6,500 metres will be completed by April 25. The base station at forward camp will offer 5G coverage to the summit of Mount Everest.

To get 5G to reach such heights, China Mobile sent 150 workers for construction and maintenance purposes. 8-tonnes of network construction and life support equipment was carried to the mountain. The equipment used to deploy 5G was made by Huawei. 25 kilometres of optical fibre cable also had to be laid for the project.

According to Global Times, a newspaper the 5G base stations on the Everest provide download speeds of 1Gbps.

“In addition to China Mobile, China Telecom has announced that it built 5G base stations at the Qomolangma base camp, at an altitude of 5,145.3 meters on April 13. The tested upload and download speeds were 700Mbps (megabits per second) and 223Mbps, respectively. China Unicom has also announced in recent days that it has built two 5G base stations on Mount Qomolangma,” Global Times reported. Qomolangma is the Tibetian name of Everest.

With the deployment of 5G at the 8,848 metres tall mountain, mountaineers are expected to be able to communicate better, thus making their expedition safer. It could also prove to be helpful for rescue workers and researchers.

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China’s auto sales rose 1.8% in June over a year earlier but fell by double digits for the first half of 2020 after the country shut down to fight the coronavirus, an industry group reported Friday.

June sales of SUVs, sedans and minivans in the industry’s biggest global market rose to 1.8 million, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

That was down from May’s 7% gain following the reopening of the economy but a rebound from February’s record 81.7% plunge after dealerships and other businesses were shut to contain the virus outbreak.

For the six months through June, sales were off 22.4% from a year ago, CAAM reported.

Total vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, rose 11.6% in June to 2.3 million.

Demand already was weak before the outbreak due to consumer jitters over a slowing economy and trade tension with Washington. Sales fell 9.6% last year, the second straight annual decline.

That has hurt global automakers that are looking to China to propel sales growth.

It also squeezes cash flow at a time when global and Chinese brands are spending billions of dollars to develop electric vehicles under pressure to meet government sales quotas.

Demand for electric vehicles weakened last year after Beijing reduced subsidies that helped to make China their biggest market, accounting for half of global sales. The government said in April it will extend subsidies through 2020 to shore up sales.

June sales of gasoline-electric hybrid and pure-electric vehicles fell 33.1% from a year earlier to 104,000, according to CAAM. For the first half, sales were down 37.4% at 393,000.

Also in the first half, SUV sales declined 14.9% from a year ago while sedan sales were off 26%.

Sales by Chinese brands fell 11.6% in June from a year ago to 590,000 units. Their market share shrank 5 percentage points from the same time a year ago to 33.5%.