(Reporter Du Feng) On March 21, the three major operators successively released the operation data report for February 2022, and the data showed that the three major operators' 5G package users continued the strong growth momentum in the month, with a net increase of more than 30 million households. As of now, the total number of 5G package users of the three major operators has exceeded 780 million. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also released monthly data, and the cumulative revenue of mainland telecommunications services in January and February reached 258.6 billion yuan, an increase of 9% year-on-year, and the cumulative growth rate hit a new high since 2015.
In this regard, CITIC Securities believes that in the first two months of 2022, the mainland telecom business will reach a new high on the basis of last year's good development, reflecting the continuous trend of the operator industry, and is optimistic about the high-quality performance of the three major operators in the first quarter of 2022.
5G Package Subscriber Competition: Telecom penetration is the highest
In February 2022, the report card of the three major operators was mixed, on the one hand, 5G package users continued to maintain rapid growth, on the other hand, mobile customers experienced negative growth. A major highlight of the operator's data report in February is that China Unicom broke the tradition of listing for the first time in the past 20 years and systematically optimized the monthly voluntary information disclosure indicators.
As of the end of February, the total number of mobile users of China Mobile reached 961 million, a decrease of 629,000 this month, of which the number of 5G package customers was about 425 million, an increase of 24.148 million per month. The total number of wired broadband service customers was 246 million, with a net increase of 1.713 million customers in the month.
China Telecom's growth in February was very solid. In February this year, the number of mobile subscribers of China Telecom was 376 million, a net increase of 890,000 in the month, and mobile users have achieved positive growth for 24 consecutive months; 5G package users have increased by 6.08 million, exceeding 200 million for the first time, reaching 202.14 million, with a penetration rate of 53.7%, ranking first among the three major operators.
Breaking the tradition of listing for 20 years, China Unicom systematically optimized the monthly voluntary information disclosure indicators for the first time, no longer disclosing "mobile billing users, fixed broadband users, fixed network local telephone users" on a monthly basis, but increasing transparency in many key areas such as "ubiquitous smart connection", "innovative application", "smart service" and "scientific and technological innovation".
China Unicom announced its February 2022 operational data announcement that as of February 2022, the cumulative number of "big connection" users reached 772 million, the cumulative number of 5G package users reached 165 million, and the cumulative number of Internet of Things terminal connections reached 308 million. The number of virtual private network customers in the 5G industry was 1238; the problem resolution rate of smart customer service customers in the month was 97.4%,; and the smart customer service intelligent service accounted for 72.1% in the month. The cumulative number of authorized patents this year was 263.
The development of emerging businesses has led to an increase in the revenue growth rate of the communications industry
In contrast to the surge in 5G package users in the mainland, the growth rate of telecom service revenue has increased, and the total amount of telecom services has maintained rapid growth.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on the 21st, in the first two months of this year, the mainland telecom business revenue reached 258.6 billion yuan, an increase of 9% year-on-year, and the growth rate increased by 3.2 percentage points year-on-year. Among them, the pulling effect of emerging businesses continues to appear.
From January to February this year, the three major operators actively developed emerging services such as IPTV, Internet data centers, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, and completed a total of 50.8 billion yuan in emerging business revenue, an increase of 34.1% year-on-year, accounting for 19.6% of telecom business revenue, driving telecom business revenue to increase by 5.5 percentage points. Among them, the growth rate of cloud computing and big data revenue was rapid, reaching 124.6% and 58% year-on-year, respectively, and the revenue of data center business and Internet of Things business also increased by 20.6% and 21.9% year-on-year.
The rapid growth of 5G package users and emerging business revenues has benefited from the steady progress of 5G base station construction. The latest data show that as of the end of February, the total number of 5G base stations in the country exceeded 1.5 million for the first time, reaching 1.506 million, accounting for 15% of the total number of mobile base stations. Among them, 81,000 new 5G base stations were built from January to February. At present, the 5G network has covered all prefectures and cities in the country and all county towns and urban areas, 87% of the townships and towns, and the coverage remains leading in the world.
The new infrastructure will further stimulate the growth potential of users
The scale of 5G users continues to increase, emerging services develop rapidly, it can be said that the network infrastructure coverage is a good return, from the investment situation, the three major telecom operators and China Tower in 2021 invested 184.9 billion yuan for the construction of 5G, these investments increased by 8.9% over 2020.
In 2022, the construction of 5G in the mainland has entered the deep-water area, and it is foreseeable that operators will strengthen in-depth coverage and accurate coverage in the next step.
Taking China Telecom as an example, the 2021 annual performance report shows that by the end of 2021, the number of 5G base stations jointly built and shared by China Telecom and China Unicom exceeded 690,000 stations, and the 5G network covered all cities and counties in the country and some developed townships. By 2022, it is expected that more than 990,000 5G base stations will be in use by the end of the year, and capital expenditure is expected to be 34 billion yuan. Among them, China Telecom built 170,000 new 5G base stations to continuously improve the depth and breadth of 5G coverage.
Previously, China Telecom said at the performance conference that China Telecom plans to increase the number of mobile service users by 15 million this year, the 5G package user plan to increase by 80 million, and the first two months of this year, the cumulative net increase of 5G package users has been 14.34 million.
It is worth mentioning that 5G mobile phones are also gaining popularity. According to a 5G mobile phone coverage report published by the research agency Counterpoint, the global sales penetration rate of 5G smartphones reached 51% in January 2022, surpassing 4G mobile phones for the first time, of which China's 5G smartphone usage rate is the highest in the world, with a penetration rate of 84% in January.
With the large-scale deployment of 5G base stations and the accelerated popularity of 5G mobile phones, 5G package users are expected to continue to grow rapidly.