(Yicai Global) Aug. 12 -- China Unicom, one of China’s big three telecoms operators, saw a jump in both its profit and revenue in the first half as the novel coronavirus pandemic drove up demand for broadband and network acceleration.

Net profit at the Beijing-based carrier soared 10.9 percent in the first six months of the year from the same period last year to reach CNY3.3 billion (USD475 million), the firm said in its latest financial report released today. Revenue was up 4 percent to CNY138.3 billion (USD19.9 billion).

The firm is also on track to reach its goal of fifth-generation wireless telecom base station construction. It shares 150,000 base stations with compatriot China Telecom that they built together and through other co-operations has 210,000 base stations at its service so far.

China Unicom is the world’s fourth-largest mobile service provider by subscriber base. As of the end of June it had 309 million mobile phone users, 86 million fixed-line broadband users and 52 million local phone users.

There was little movement in the firm’s share price on the Shanghai [SHA:600050] and Hong Kong [HKG:0762] bourses today. Both rose marginally to close at CNY5.10 (USD0.73) in Shanghai and HKD4.57 (USD0.59) in Hong Kong.

Editor: Kim Taylor