China Reached One Billion 5G Subscriptions

Mobile operators in China breached the one-billion 5G network subscriber milestone in November, Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology data shows. Previously, Chinese networks collectively reached 995 million subs at the end of October.

China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Broadnet added 173 million new 5G users year-on-year in October, taking penetration to 55.6%. Assuming monthly additions, which averaged 14.4 million in the year to October, topped 5 million last month, the country’s total would have surpassed 1 billion.

China Mobile ended October with 545.7 million 5G network users, those with both compatible handsets and service packages, up by more than 6 million in September. It started disclosing the numbers in March. Rivals China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Broadnet only report 5G package subscribers.

The operators deployed 764,000 5G base stations since the start of 2024, taking the total to 4.1 million. GSMA Intelligence data showed India is the world’s second-largest 5G market, with 220.4 million users at the end of September. Reliance Jio led with nearly 120 million.