China Unicom, the country’s second largest telecom operator, said Friday its first-half net profit fell 42.1 percent year on year to 6.62 billion yuan (US$973.5 million), under international accounting rules. Revenue stood at 76.32 billion yuan in the first half. Earnings per share were 0.28 yuan, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Chang Xiaobing, chairman of China Unicom, said the company’s restructuring and fierce competition resulted in the profit decline.
The telecom operator’s mobile service realized revenue of 34.19 billion yuan, having climbed 5.7 percent from the same period of 2008. Landline service reached 40.19 billion yuan in revenue, dropping 11.3 percent. Lastly, its revenue from the broadband landline services grew 10.3 percent to 11.73 billion yuan.
China Unicom’s EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, dropped 17.8 percent on year to 31.97 billion yuan.
Revenue from mobile communication services rose 5.7 percent to 34.19 billion yuan while revenue from fixed-line broadband services surged 10.3 percent to 11.73 billion yuan.
In the first half, the carrier’s mobile business grew steadily while the revenue proportion of mobile value-added services kept on rising.
China Unicom said it would improve its mobile phone communication service in the second half while making more efforts to promote its third generation service (3G) by optimizing the 3G network and launching new products.