China reached about 900 million 5G subscribers by the end of May

Chinese operators recorded a net profit of 30.18 million 5G subscribers in May

According to the latest available carrier figures, China ended May with a total of 899.3 million subscribers in the 5G segment.

Chinese operators recorded a net profit of 30.18 million 5G subscribers in May.

China Mobile, the world’s largest subscriber in terms of subscribers, added a total of 18.21 million 5G subscribers last month. The operator said that it ended May 2221 with 225.95 million 5G subscribers with 495.13 million 5G subscribers.

China Mobile added a total of 108.32 million subscribers to the 5G segment in the first five months of the year.

At the end of May, China Mobile’s total mobile subscriber base was 966.59 million, up slightly from 966.39 million in the previous month.

Rival operator China Unicom said it had added a total of 4.93 million 5G subscribers in May. The carrier ended the month with 179.70 million 5G subscribers.

Meanwhile, China Telecom added 7.04 million 5G subscribers last month, bringing its total number of 5G subscribers to 224.47 million. In the first five months of the year, Telco added a total of 36.67 million 5G subscribers.

After adding about 830,000 subscribers per month, China Telecom had a total mobile base of 381.15 million subscribers at the end of May.

Chinese telcos have already set up about 1.6 million 5G base stations nationwide. Local operators aim to build 600,000 new 5G base stations this year, of which 134,000 have already been built in the first quarter. According to previous reports, China expects to end this year with about 2 million 5G base stations.

Chinese carriers reportedly deployed a total of 654,000 base stations nationwide last year.

The country’s 5G networks now cover all prefecture-level cities, accounting for more than 98% of county-level urban areas and 80% of township-level urban areas across the country.

Earlier this year, MIIT unveiled plans to triple the number of 5G base stations over the next four years, targeting a total of 3.64 million by the end of 2025.

Under the plan, China aims to have 26 5G base stations per 10,000 people by the end of 2025. By comparison, in 2020, China had five 5G base stations for every 10,000 people

According to a recent report by GSMA, China is expected to reach 892 million connections in the 5G segment in 2025.

According to The Mobile Economy China, GSMA expects 5G connections in the country to represent 52% of total mobile lines in 2025, up from 29% in 2021.

The report further states that mainland China represents the single largest 5G market in the world, with more than three-quarters of the world’s total 5G connections by the end of 2021.