(Yicai) July 23 -- China Mobile, the country’s biggest mobile telecoms carrier, announced that its customer base exceeded 1 billion at the end of last month.

The number of users increased by 1.82 million in June to slightly over 1 billion, continuing to far exceed those of rivals China Unicom and China Telecom, according to the latest operating data released by the country's three biggest telecoms operators.

The ranks of China Mobile's fifth-generation mobile network subscribers jumped by 11.7 million to 514.2 million in June. Its fixed-line broadband subscribership rose by 1.7 million to 309.2 million.

China Telecom's 5G user numbers jumped 18 percent to 336.6 million in the first half, with a penetration rate of over 80 percent. Its fixed-line broadband subscribership reached 193.4 million.

The number of 5G users of China Unicom rose by 16.5 million to 276.2 million in the six months ended June 30. The number of its Internet-of-things terminal connections surged by 68.5 million to 562.4 million.

As the investment in 5G construction has passed its peak, the growth rate of these user numbers will likely slow in the future, according to analysts.

The global mobile subscriber penetration rate will grow at a compound annual rate of just 1.7 percent in the next five years, showing the increasing difficulty of getting new subscribers, according to the Global System for Mobile Communications Association.

The industry lacks a successful 5G commercialization model, insiders told Yicai during the 2024 Mobile World Congress Shanghai, held from June 26 to 28. In the business-to-business segment, the monetization of 5G applications is unsatisfactory, while in terms of the business-to-consumer segment, operators' 5G fee model is still in the 4G era, they noted.

The deployment costs of 5G networks are still high for the industry, and spectrum resources are limited, said Cheng Zhong, a partner at Deloitte. From a global perspective, as there is no uniform industry standard, China needs to support the 5G sector by starting with policies, Cheng added.

Editor: Martin Kadiev