September 19, 2011 (Chinavestor) If anyone had doubts about the successful upgrade of 2G subscriber to 3G or smartphone subscribers, China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) has an answer. China's second largest mobile operator after China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) added 315,000 2G users in the month of August 2011, one seventh of the 2,049,000 new 3G users for the same month.
August decisive numbers are no coincidence but rather a long term trend. While growth of 2G users have been slowing down, it has been accelerating for smartphone users since its inception.
| Total number of smart-phone users reached 27.868 million by the end of August, a stellar rise since October 2009 when the service was introduced. As a matter of fact, August marks the first month that China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) added more than 2 million news subscribers to the service in one month. China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) is still number one in 3G and 2G arenas but dynamics are strong for CHU as well. | |
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While 2G subscribers still outnumbering 3G subscribers by a wide margin, dynamics favor the smartphone segment. Total number of 2G subscriber approach the 160 million mark, but the speed is clearly decelerating. China Unicom (NYSE:CHU) added 315,000 new users to this segment in August, the second smallest number for any month in the past two years.
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