Mobile carrier earnings rise 32%

HONG KONG: China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by users, reported a 32 percent growth in its net profit in 2007 to a record 87.1 billion yuan, thanks to the rapid increase in subscribers.

The company posted a 21 percent increase in revenue to 357 billion yuan and saw its subscriber base rise 23 percent to nearly 370 million, with a net increase of 68.1 million.

The mobile carrier focused on the rural market, where half of its new subscribers are. But as they are mainly lower-end users, the average monthly revenue per customer, or ARPU, dropped slightly to 89 yuan from 90 yuan a year earlier. But the total voice usage reported a strong growth of 45 percent, exceeding 1.8 trillion minutes, and the average usage per user per month was 455 minutes, up 19 percent.