(Yicai Global) March 21 -- Shares of China Mobile slumped after the country's biggest mobile phone operator reported slower earnings growth that trailed revenue and profit gains at competitors China Telecom and China Unicom.

The stock [HKG:0941] dropped 4.8 percent to end the day at HKD83.10 (USD10.59), compared with a 0.9 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

The Beijing-based company today posted a 3.1 percent increase in net profit to CNY117.8 billion (USD17.6 billion) for the year ended December thanks to a one-time gain from the listing of mobile tower builder China Tower in August. The company's profit growth slowed from a 5.1 percent clip in 2017. Last year's operating revenue fell 0.5 percent to CNY737 billion.

In comparison, China Telecom's profit climbed 14 percent to CNY21.2 billion last year, beating market expectations, while China Unicom's soared to CNY10.2 billion, a more-than-expected five-fold increase.

China Mobile's revenue from telecom services was CNY670.9 billion in 2018, a gain of 3.7 percent, according to its earnings report released today.

It saw an increase of 1.1 million users to 930 million in February, which is far more than that of China Unicom and China Telecom. Of them, over 719 million use the carrier's fourth-generation wireless network, an increase of 2.1 million last month. The other two operators have 310 million and 320 million users, respectively.

5G Future

This year, China Mobile will strive to have at least 2 billion 5G connections, achieve positive momentum in telecom service revenues and steadily increase profit, the firm said. It will facilitate tests and business application demonstrations of the fifth-generation mobile network to ensure implementation of trial commercial services this year.

It has 1.6 billion connections now: 925 million for mobile; 157 million for broadband; and 551 million for smart connections in the Internet of Things.

China Mobile Hong Kong has become a successful applicant for the 5G spectrum in Hong Kong, Hong Kong's Communications Authority announced yesterday.

China Mobile also maintained its efforts in making breakthroughs last year in the application of new technologies such as cloud computing, Big Data and artificial intelligence, the firm added.