China 3G spending slows to $880 mln in Q1
BEIJING, April 22 (Reuters) - China spent more than 6 billion yuan ($880 million) expanding its 3G telecoms network in the first quarter, the government said on Thursday, with just under a third of the money going to its home-grown TD-SCDMA standard.
China's three telecom operators spent about $21 billion building their 3G networks in 2009, following the much-delayed issue of licences earlier that year.
China Mobile (0941.HK) continued to dominate the 3G field with about 42 percent of all users subscribing to its network, while smaller rivals China Telecom (0728.HK) and China Unicom (0762.HK) had 30.8 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively.
The service had more than 4.8 million new subscribers in January-March this year, a Ministry of Information and Industry Technology spokesman said at a news conference, bringing the total number of 3G users in China to over 18 million.
Like its peers in other more developed markets, telecom operators are turning to data and other value-added services to boost their revenue at a time when cellphone penetration rises.
(Reporting by Shao Xiaoyi; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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