
China Telecom buys Beijing Telecom
Mobile battle prompts fixed-line manoeuvre

China Telecom, China's largest fixed-line phone provider, has announced plans to buy regional phone operator Beijing Telecom for $793m.
The government-controlled former monopoly, which still owns about 70 per cent of China's fixed telephone lines, has struggled to cope with a rapidly evolving market and competition from mobile phone operators.
"Due to intensifying mobile substitution, China Telecom experienced negative growth in access lines in service for the first time [in 2007], and voice business revenue decreased by 7.9 per cent from 2006," the company said in a statement.
Charice Wang, an analyst at research firm Ovum, explained that China Telecom has been facing strong competition from China Mobile as customers switch to mobile services under increasing fixed-mobile substitution.
"China Telecom's traditional voice business has been [declining in] recent years," she said.
"In its annual report for 2007, China Telecom's fixed voice subscribers fell 2.71 million to 220 million, and net profit was $3.20bn, a year-on-year increase of just 1.1 per cent."
The move represents a reintegration of divisions at the former state-run phone monopoly.
"It is a good move for China Telecom to boost its bottom line and enlarge its service coverage via the internal integration," said Wang.
"It is not a new strategy for China Telecom to absorb the good performance arms of its state-owned parent, China Telecom Group.
"Back in 2003 and 2004, it acquired six and 10 provincial arms respectively to achieve coverage of [the whole of] South China."
Further reading
V3 Latest
First plant to grow on the Moon, err, dies
Cotton seedling freezes to death as Chang'e-4 shuts down for the Moon's 14-day lunar night
Fortnite news and updates: Fortnite made $2.4bn in 2018, according to SuperData
Fortnite easily out-earns PUBG, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018
Japanese firm sends micro-satellites into space to deliver artificial meteor showers on demand
Meteor showers as a service will be visible for about 100 kilometres in all directions
Saturn's rings only formed in the past 100 million years, suggests analysis of Cassini space probe data
New findings contradict conventional belief that Saturn's rings were formed along with the planet about 4.5 billion years ago