China Unicom has cut its revenue target for its CDMA (code division multiple access) network. Executive director and vice president Shi Cuiming said that the company had reduced its target net average revenue per user (arpu) from Yn100 to Yn80. In the first quarter, its net arpu was Yn87.
Shi said the new target still compared well with the arpu for the global system for mobile communications (GSM) of around Yn60. The target was cut to take account of market conditions and the extensive roll-out of pre-paid services in July, which would reduce average revenue. The target excludes handset subsidies paid to gain subscribers to the new service. The company has already spent more than Yn2bn on these subsidies, at an average of Yn71 per user. However, subsidies fell in the first quarter of this year as the proportion of subscribers will self-purchased handsets rose from 41 per cent to 60 per cent.
China Unicom said its subscriber base grew by just 2.67 per cent in April to 66.6m, with its CDMA total adding just 555,000 subscribers to 8.58m. Subscriber growth at China Mobile (Hong Kong) was even more modest, increasing 1.37 per cent to 125.5m.
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