One of every four mobile customers in China is now using a 3G service, according to the country’s telecom watchdog.
Statistics from the MIIT show that the country’s 3G penetration rate has increased to 25% by April, thanks to increased proliferation of smartphones and operators’ aggressive promotion strategies.
The three major Chinese mobile carriers together added nearly 56 million 3G customers for the first four months of the year. As of end-April, China had 289 million 3G subscribers, and a total mobile subscriber base (2G and 3G) of 11.55 billion.
China Mobile has the biggest share in the 3G market with 41.4%, followed by China Unicom (31.8%) and China Telecom (26.8%).
Yet the figures for last month represent a slowdown in growth of new 3G subscribers, following strong gains in March.
China Mobile added 5.65 million new customers to its TD-SCDMA network last month, beating smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom. But this pales in coparison to the operator's addition of 9.8 million 3G customers in March.
China Mobile has added a total of 32.1 million 3G users so far by this year, after the company introduced aggressive strategies to lure low-end 2G subscribers to migrate to 3G network.
China Unicom, the country’s No. 2 mobile carrier, said its 3G subscribers grew 4.07 million to 91.892 million. This is down from 4.33 million W-CDMA users added a month earlier.
China Telecom’s 3G additions also eased to 3.07 million in April from 3.2 million a month earlier. As of April, China Telecom had 81.14 million 3G users, lagging behind both its rivals.