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Unicom revenues tumble as subscriber growth slows [TeleGeography CommsUpdate](TeleGeography CommsUpdate Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Chinese GSM and W-CDMA network operator China Unicom has registered a 26.1% year-on-year increase in net profits for the first three quarters of 2014 as savings from changes to its marketing and handset subsidy policies offset a decline in total turnover. Unicom booked revenues of CNY215.34 billion (USD35.06 billion) for the nine-month period – down 2.2% from CNY220.17 billion a year earlier – CNY119.10 billion of which was from mobile services, whilst the fixed broadband business contributed CNY66.99 billion. Cuts to the operator's marketing efforts saw selling expenses drop 0.3% y-o-y to CNY31.79 billion, whilst the terminal subsidy was cut by 32.7% to CNY3.91 billion. Meanwhile, Unicom lowered the costs of telecommunications products sold by nearly CNY16 billion to CNY32.25 billion from CNY48.18 billion in 9M 2013. *Elsewhere the provider's turnover was impacted by a slowdown in subscriber growth, the operator registering net additions of 2.067 million mobile subscribers in Q3 2014, compared to 10.595 million in the corresponding period of 2013. Similarly, in the fixed broadband segment, Unicom added roughly two million net new subscribers in 9M 2014, compared to more than three million in 2013. (c) 2014 PriMetrica, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |