China Mobile 3Q profit up 26%, disappoints analysts

China Mobile’s third quarter net profit rose by 26% year-on-year to US$4 billion, but failed to meet analyst expectations as the Olympic games slowed demand from business clients, Bloomberg reported. Revenues rose by 14% to US$15.4 billion. The network operator added 7.25 million users in September, for a third-quarter total of 66.8 million and a total subscriber base of 436.1 million. "The Olympics would have had some effects, as we can see in the decline in average usage data,” said Victor Yip, an analyst at UOB Kay-Hian Ltd in Hong Kong. "We are a little disappointed by the earnings, which dropped from the previous quarter." Average use fell to 493 minutes per user per month in the first three quarters, compared with 496 minutes in the first six months.