Chinese telecom sector:Dec stats -wireless continues to improve

Growth in the mobile market continues to improve with total subscribers up7% YoY in December vs. 4% in Dec 2016. CT was the winner in FY17 with itswireless subscriber market share edging up 1.4ppts at the expense of CMwhile CU broadly maintained its share. CM had a better performance in gaining4G net adds in FY17 with a market share of 47%, though this is still below itsoverall subscriber market share. The fixed broadband market grew strongly inFY17 with overall subs up 17% YoY while CU was the underperformer this yearin this category.

    CU’s fixed broadband subscribers declined 1m in December compared with660k net adds for CT and 2.5m for CM. We do note that December tends to bea slower month for fixed broadband with industry net adds on average 40%lower than other months in the year. That said 2017 remains a soft year forCU’s broadband business, which saw total net adds of 1.3m vs. 10.4m for CTand 35.1m for CM. CU has recently launched a 2I2C broadband product inconjunction with its existing 2I2C mobile products, which should see somemomentum back in its fixed broadband business.