China Mobile grows by ever bigger leaps

China Mobile said its global system for mobile communications, or GSM, subscriber base increased by 2.88 million in July, beating June's 2.7 million increase. The company's total customer base now stands at 188.35 million, or nearly 10 Australias. Of the total, 59.20 million are contract subscribers, 129.15 million prepaid card users. Subscribers are preferred as a rule because they provide steady cash flow, but card users have one compensation: they create a rolling float, which can be huge with a card population of CM's size, on the unspent amount.