Chinese cellos add 8.2m 3G users in Nov

China had added over 8.2 million new 3G users last month, pushing the country’s total 3G subscriber base to 117.89 million by November, thanks to the increased availability of cheaper smartphones.

China Mobile still holds the biggest share of the country’s 3G market with 40.7%, followed by China Unicom (31%), and China Telecom (28.3%).

Yet in the race for new 3G subscribers, China Unicom beat rival China Mobile and China Unicom for the second consecutive month [see table below], after the company introduced the cheaper version of iPhone 4 and reduced its 3G tariff to as low as 66 yuan per month.

China Unicom registered nearly 3.4 million new 3G users in November - a record-high for the company for the year, bringing its 3G subscriber base to 36.5 million.

The figure outpaced rivals China Mobile and China Telecom, which signed up nearly 2.7 million and 2.2 million new 3G subscribers respectively.

By November China Mobile’s total mobile user base increased to 644.3 million, of which 48 million were using the TD-SCDMA network. The company added 2.8 million new GSM users during the month, the only operator which still signed up more 2G users than 3G users.

China Telecom, meanwhile, had a total of 123.4 million mobile users, of which 27% or 33.35 million were EV-DO subscribers. China Telecom also added close to 1 million 2G users during the month.

Table. China 3G subscriber growth by operator, January – November 2011

Source: Operators statistics

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