According to the performance reports of the first half of 2021 published by the three major telecom operators in China, the number of users of 5G packages in China has reached 495 million, which is a step away from 500 million.

As of the end of June, the number of users of China Telecom's 5G package reached 131 million, and the penetration rate reached 36.2%. China Mobile has 251 million users, with a net increase of 86 million users in the first half of the year; China Unicom has 113 million users, with a penetration rate of 36.5%.

Users upgrading 5G maintained healthy and good value growth, and ARPU (average revenue per user) of mobile users stopped falling and continued to rise. In the first half of the year, the ARPU of China Telecom's mobile subscribers reached RMB 45.7, an increase of 2.9% year-on-year, and the growth rate was further improved. The ARPU of China Mobile's mobile subscribers was RMB 52.2, up 3.8% year on year, reversing the downward trend since 2018; The ARPU of China Unicom mobile subscribers reached 44.4 yuan, up 8.5% year on year.

Benefiting from the accelerated digital transformation of China's economy and society, the performance of the three major telecom operators improved in the first half of the year. According to official data, the overall net profit of operators in the first half of the year was 86 billion yuan. China Telecom's operating income in the first half of the year was 219.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%; The net profit was 17.7 billion yuan, up by 27.2% year-on-year, and after excluding the one-time profit from the sale of subsidiaries, it increased by 17.0% year-on-year. China Mobile's operating income in the first half of the year was 443.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%; Profit attributable to shareholders was 59.1 billion yuan, and earnings per share was 2.89 yuan, up 6.0% year-on-year. China Unicom's operating income in the first half of the year reached RMB 164.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%; In the first half of the year, the total profit exceeded 10 billion yuan for the first time in recent years, reaching 11.2 billion yuan; The net profit attributable to the parent company reached RMB 4.03 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.6%.

The construction of 5G network is also proceeding as planned. In the first half of 2021, China Telecom and China Unicom jointly built and shared 80,000 new 5G base stations, and the two sides have deployed and connected  more than 460,000 5G base stations in total, and achieved dual leadership in coverage and network awareness in first-tier cities. China Mobile's 5G related investment totaled 50.2 billion yuan. By the end of June, a total of 501,000 5G base stations had been connected, providing 5G services to urban areas, cities, counties, towns and key areas in China.