UPDATE 1-China Telecom Q2 beats f'casts as 3G users rise

* Q2 net profit 4.81 bln yuan vs forecast 3.45 bln yuan

* EBITDA margin down 0.7 pct points to 42.5 pct

* 7.18 mln 3G users, lowest among rivals

* Says monthly ARPU stable (Adds details, quote)

By Kelvin Soh

HONG KONG, Aug 25 (Reuters) - China Telecom (0728.HK), the smallest of China's three wireless carriers, reported a 11 percent rise in second-quarter profit, beating expectations, as it aggressively promoted its new 3G network to gain market share.

China Telecom made a net profit of 4.81 billion yuan in the April-June quarter, according to Reuters calculations using company data, versus 4.3 billion yuan a year ago and better than expectations for 3.45 billion yuan, according to a Reuters poll of three analysts.

China Telecom is a relative newcomer to China's mobile market, the world's largest, but it also operates the country's largest fixed-line network and is aggressively promoting broadband over that channel.

"The company is also facing the challenges of intensifying competition in the telecommunications sector," Chairman Wang Xiaochu said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, adding that it would focus on "accelerating the promotion of broadband access and mobile services".

China Telecom's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin, a key indicator for profitability in the telecoms sector, fell 0.7 percentage points to 42.5 percent from the first quarter.

Its 3G user base grew to 7.18 million from 5.6 million at the end of the first quarter, still smaller than rival China Mobile's 10.5 million and China Unicom's 7.5 million at the end of June.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) for China Telecom's mobile services, a widely watched industry benchmark, remained relatively stable, the company said without giving a figure. It had monthly ARPU of 59.50 yuan for the full year of 2009.

China Telecom has been aggressively pushing its mobile service since it received a mobile licence in early 2009, and purchased a network based on the CDMA standard from rival China Unicom (0762.HK).

It is currently China's smallest mobile operator with some 77 million users at the end of July, just under 10 percent of the country's 795 million users.

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For the three carriers' latest mobile numbers, click:

r.reuters.com/kub36n

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Like its peers in more developed economies, China Telecom has been seeing revenue from its core fixed-line voice operations slip as more users migrate to mobile. The company has been trying to push data services over its 3G and fixed-line networks to make up for the fall.

Bigger rival China Mobile (0941.HK) reported second-quarter earnings that roughly matched market expectations last week, rising 7 percent, and bet that value-added services such as music downloads will help reignite growth. [ID:nTOE67F03P]

China Telecom shares are up about 16 percent so far this year, beating a 6 percent decline on the benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI.

Shares of telecoms companies have largely risen this year as investors flock to blue-chip stocks seen as safe-haven investments amid broader market weakness. (Reporting by Kelvin Soh; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)