In the first quarter of 2025, the performance reports of China's three major telecom operators - China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom - have all been released. Overall, the three major operators have accelerated the layout in emerging fields while stabilizing basic businesses, showing a development trend of steady progress, with innovation driving growth and laying a good foundation for the whole year's development.
Looking at the revenue and profit data, the combined revenue of the three major operators reached 501.7 billion yuan, a slight year - on - year increase of 0.8%, and their profits witnessed a significant increase. Specifically, China Mobile's revenue was 263.8 billion yuan, basically flat, with a net profit of 30.6 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 3.5%; China Unicom's revenue was 103.353 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 3.9%, and its net profit was 2.606 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 6.5%; China Telecom's revenue was 134.509 billion yuan, a slight year - on - year increase of 0.01%, and its net profit was 8.864 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 3.11%. China Unicom stood out in terms of revenue growth rate and year - on - year increase in net profit.
In various business segments, basic businesses maintained stable growth. In terms of mobile users, China Mobile had a total of 1.003 billion mobile customers, among which 578 million were 5G users; China Unicom had 349 million mobile users, with 204 million 5G network users; China Telecom had 270 million 5G users, with a penetration rate of 62%. In the broadband business, China Mobile had 320 million wired broadband customers, China Unicom had 124 million fixed - network broadband users, and China Telecom had 198 million broadband customers, with the penetration rate of gigabit broadband users reaching approximately 30%.
Emerging businesses have become new growth engines. China Unicom's computing - network digital - intelligence business shined, with the revenue of Unicom Cloud reaching 19.72 billion yuan and the revenue of data centers reaching 7.22 billion yuan (an 8.8% year - on - year increase), and numerous "5G + Industrial Internet" projects and 5G factories were launched. China Mobile enhanced the revenue share of enterprise - government and emerging markets through the expansion of "AI + DICT" projects and the construction of digital content and communication - finance integration ecosystems. China Telecom's emerging strategic businesses grew rapidly, with IDC revenue reaching 9.5 billion yuan (a 10.4% year - on - year increase), intelligent revenue increasing by 151.6%, and the revenues of video networking, satellite communication, and quantum communication increasing by 58.4%, 37.2%, and 81.1% respectively.
The three major operators also attach great importance to R & D investment to continuously enhance their technological strength. In the first quarter of 2025, the R & D expenses of China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom were 3.192 billion yuan, 1.751 billion yuan, and 1.471 billion yuan respectively, with year - on - year increases of 6.3%, 11.5%, and 6.7% respectively. The R & D focuses on core technologies such as cloud - network integration, AI, and quantum, providing support for business innovation and long - term development.
However, the three major operators also face the problem of growing accounts receivable. The accounts receivable of China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom in the first quarter were 101.4 billion yuan, 69.21 billion yuan, and 59.9 billion yuan respectively, all reaching new highs. This is mainly related to factors such as business and revenue structure transformation and the relatively slow payment collection speed of some businesses.
In the future, the three major operators will continue to deepen 5G applications, promote AI empowerment, strengthen cloud - network integration, and research and development of emerging technologies. They will continuously promote high - quality development, play an important role in the development of the digital economy, and strive to achieve the goals and tasks for the whole year.
