China Telecom grew its nine-month revenues by 11.8 percent to CNY 182.36 billion from CNY 163.16 billion a year earlier. Revenues from sale of mobile handsets were approximately CNY 10.10 billion, up nearly two times over the corresponding period of last year.

Meanwhile, other operating expenses increased significantly as a result of the corresponding significant increase in the costs of mobile terminals sold. Over the period, the group increased the sales initiatives and therefore, selling, general and administrative expenses increased by 13.7 percent to CNY 33.57 billion. EBITDA (before CDMA network capacity lease fees) totalled CNY 72.39 billion, up 6.1 percent, and EBITDA margin stood at 39.7 percent, down 2.1 percentage points year-on-year.

China Telecom posted a profit of CNY 13.86 billion, up 10.1 percent from CNY 12.59 billion. The company ended the period with 116.95 million mobile customers, of which 28.43 million are 3G customers, as China Telecom added 26.43 million new customers in the nine-month period. The company also had 73.69 million fixed-line broadband subscribers, up by 10.21 million, and 170.96 local access lines in service, which continued to drop.
 

Source:cn-c114