Economic performance of the telecommunications industry in the first three quarters of 2024

In the first three quarters, the overall operation of the communications industry was stable, the main indicators were in a reasonable range, the construction of new infrastructure was orderly promoted, the scale of 5G, gigabit, Internet of Things and other users continued to expand, and the mobile Internet access traffic maintained a rapid growth.
1、 Overall operation status
The revenue from telecommunications services is steadily increasing, and the total growth rate of telecommunications services remains in double digits. In the first three quarters, the cumulative revenue of telecommunications business reached 1315.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%. The total volume of telecommunications services, calculated at unchanged prices from the previous year, increased by 10.7% year-on-year.
The revenue of fixed Internet broadband business grew steadily. In the first three quarters, three basic telecom enterprises completed Internet broadband business revenue of 204.4 billion yuan, up 4.2% year on year, accounting for 15.6% of telecom business revenue, 0.1 percentage point higher than that in the first eight months, and 0.6 percentage point higher than that in the previous eight months.
The revenue from mobile data traffic business is gradually declining. In the first three quarters, three basic telecommunications companies completed mobile data traffic business revenue of 484 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.6%, accounting for 36.8% of telecommunications business revenue.
The revenue from emerging businesses is growing rapidly. The three basic telecom enterprises actively developed emerging businesses such as IPTV, Internet data center, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. In the first three quarters, they achieved a total business income of 325.2 billion yuan, up 9.4% year on year, accounting for 24.7% of telecom business income, driving the growth of telecom business income by 2.2 percent. Cloud computing and big data revenue increased by 9.4% and 61.8% respectively year-on-year, while IoT business revenue increased by 13% year-on-year.
The revenue from mobile voice services continues to decline. In the first three quarters, three basic telecommunications companies achieved fixed voice and mobile voice business revenues of 14.55 billion yuan and 82.19 billion yuan, an increase of 3.9% and a decrease of 3.6% year-on-year, respectively, accounting for 7.4% of telecommunications business revenue, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points year-on-year.
2、 Development of Telecommunications Users
The number of fixed broadband access users has steadily increased, with nearly 200 million households having gigabit users. By the end of September, the total number of fixed Internet broadband access users of the three basic telecommunications enterprises had reached 666 million, a net increase of 29.55 million over the end of the previous year. Among them, there are 631 million fixed Internet broadband access users with access rates of 100Mbps and above, accounting for 94.7% of the total number of users; The number of fixed Internet broadband access users with access rates of 1000 Mbps and above reached 196 million, a net increase of 32.73 million over the end of last year, accounting for 29.4% of the total number of users, 3.7 percentage points higher than the end of last year. Driven by the continuous growth of high-speed users, the average access bandwidth per household reached 499.1 Mbps, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%.
The scale of mobile phone users is steadily increasing, and the scale of 5G users continues to expand. As of the end of September, the total number of mobile phone users of the three basic telecommunications companies and China Radio and Television reached 1.786 billion, a net increase of 42.06 million from the end of the previous year. Among them, the number of 5G mobile phone users reached 981 million, a net increase of 159 million from the end of last year, accounting for 54.9% of mobile phone users and an increase of 8.3 percentage points compared to the end of last year.
The number of cellular IoT users is growing rapidly, and the number of IPTV (Internet Television) users is steadily increasing. As of the end of September, the three basic telecommunications companies had developed 2.596 billion cellular IoT terminal users, a net increase of 264 million from the end of the previous year, accounting for 59.2% of the total number of mobile network terminal connections (including mobile phone users and cellular IoT terminal users). The total number of IPTV (Internet Television) users reached 406 million, a net increase of 5.135 million from the end of last year.
3、 Usage of Telecommunications Services
Mobile Internet traffic grew rapidly, and the DOU value reached 18.4GB/user in September. In the first three quarters, the accumulated mobile Internet traffic [see Note 1] reached 246.4 billion GB, up 12.4% year on year. By the end of September, the number of mobile Internet users [see Note 1] had reached 1.57 billion, a net increase of 45.49 million over the end of the previous year. In September, the average household mobile Internet access traffic (DOU) reached 18.38GB/household · month, up 7.9% year on year, 1.37GB/household · month higher than the same period of the previous year.
The volume of phone calls continues to decline, while the revenue from mobile SMS services continues to grow. In the first three quarters, the duration of mobile phone calls reached 1.61 trillion minutes, a year-on-year decrease of 4.8%; The calling duration of landline phones reached 58.6 billion minutes, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%. In the first three quarters, the national mobile SMS business volume increased by 3.6% year-on-year; The revenue from mobile SMS services increased by 1.9% year-on-year.
4、 Communication capability situation
The total length of optical cable lines is steadily increasing. As of the end of September, the total length of optical cable lines in China reached 71.83 million kilometers, a net increase of 7.514 million kilometers from the end of the previous year. The proportion of access network fiber optic cables, local network relay fiber optic cables, and long-distance fiber optic cable lines were 60.8%, 37.7%, and 1.6%, respectively. The proportion of local network relay fiber optic cables increased by 2.1 percentage points compared to the first half of the year.

The construction of gigabit fiber optic broadband network continues to advance. By the end of September, the number of broadband Internet access ports nationwide had reached 1.194 billion, a net increase of 57.78 million over the end of the previous year. Among them, the number of FTTH/O ports reached 1.153 billion, a net increase of 58.26 million over the end of last year, accounting for 96.6% of Internet broadband access ports. As of the end of September, the number of 10G PON ports with gigabit network service capabilities reached 27.32 million, a net increase of 4.299 million from the end of the previous year.
The construction of 5G networks is steadily advancing. As of the end of September, the total number of mobile phone base stations in China reached 12.64 million, a net increase of 1.019 million from the end of the previous year. Among them, the total number of 5G base stations reached 4.089 million, a net increase of 712000 from the end of last year, accounting for 32.4% of the total number of mobile base stations and an increase of 3.3 percentage points compared to the end of last year.
5、 Regional development situation
The penetration rate of gigabit users continues to increase in various regions. As of the end of September, the penetration rates of fixed broadband access users with 1000Mbps and above in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions were 30.1%, 29.9%, 29.8%, and 21.6%, respectively. The penetration rates of broadband access users with access speeds of 1000Mbps and above in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei and Yangtze River Delta regions were 31.2% and 29.2%, respectively, an increase of 0.6 and 0.2 percentage points from the previous month.
The construction and application of 5G in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region are leading. As of the end of September, the number of 5G base stations in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions reached 1.801 million, 92.6 million, 1.101 million, and 260000 respectively, accounting for 33.3%, 33.7%, 29.8%, and 33.1% of the total number of mobile phone base stations in the region; The number of 5G mobile phone users reached 428 million, 232 million, 256 million, and 66 million respectively, accounting for 55.3%, 55.4%, 54.6%, and 52.9% of the total number of mobile phone users in the region. As of the end of September, the number of 5G base stations in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei and Yangtze River Delta regions reached 375000 and 790000 respectively, accounting for 35.3% and 33.4% of the total number of mobile phone base stations in the region; The number of 5G mobile phone users reached 84.97 million and 176.36 million respectively, accounting for 56% and 54.4% of the total number of mobile phone users in the region.
9 provinces have DOU values exceeding 20GB per household per month. In the first three quarters, mobile Internet access traffic in the east, middle, west and northeast regions reached 103.3 billion GB, 58.2 billion GB, 71.3 billion GB and 13.7 billion GB respectively, with year-on-year growth of 8.9%, 17.2%, 12.6% and 19.7%. Mobile Internet access traffic in Beijing Tianjin Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta reached 18.79 billion GB and 42.31 billion GB respectively, up 18.8% and 5.4% year on year. The average mobile Internet access traffic (DOU) of 9 provinces in September exceeded 20GB/household/month; The difference between the highest and lowest DOU values in each province is 17.6GB/household · month, an increase of 3.2GB/household · month compared to the same period last year.

Note: 1. From February 2024, the number of 5G mobile phone users, 5G mobile Internet access traffic and 5G mobile Internet users of China Radio and Television Network Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Radio and Television) will be included in the industry summary data, and the data of the same period last year will be adjusted synchronously.

Source: Operations Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology