(Yicai Global) March 11 -- Some 23 percent of China Unicom’s mobile network subscribers have upgraded to fifth-generation services, said the firm, which is one of China’s big three telecoms carriers.

Seventy million of its 306 million wireless network customers subscribe to 5G network bundles, it said in its latest earnings report released today. This is above the industry average of 20 percent.

The growing number of 5G users has helped drive growth, Chairman Wang Xiaochu said in the earnings report. The firm saw a 16.5 percent gain in mobile handset traffic last year and will continue to push 5G bundles to customers, he added.

China Unicom together with competitor China Telecom have built the world’s first and largest ‘co-built and co-shared’ 5G network comprising 380,000 base stations, it said. The collaboration has saved them over CNY76 billion (USD11.7 billion) in construction costs.

2020 was a good year for the carrier. Profit jumped 10.8 percent from 2019 to CNY12.5 billion (USD2 billion). Revenue was up 4.6 percent to CNY303.8 billion (USD46.8 billion).

China Unicom’s share price [SHA:600050] closed up 0.91 percent at CNY4.42 (USD0.68) today.

Editor: Kim Taylor