(Yicai Global) March 12 -- China United Network Communications Group, the country's third-biggest fifth-generation wireless data plan provider, aims to attract about 70 million new 5G subscribers this year.

The wireless carrier, better known as China Unicom, aims to add a similar number of new subscribers as last year, Chairman Wang Xiaochu said during an earnings call yesterday.

The company currently has 70.8 million 5G users whereas its rivals China Mobile has 169 million and China Telecom 97.2 million, based on public data.

2020 Earnings

China Unicom's net profit climbed by 10.8 percent to CNY5.5 billion (USD850 million) in 2020 from a year ago, the Beijing-based company said in its earnings report. Its core revenue rose by 4.3 percent to CNY275.8 billion (USD42.6 billion).

The mobile network operator revealed a share buyback plan. It will spend a sum between CNY1.25 billion and CNY2.5 billion to purchase its own shares via centralized bidding at a price of no more than CNY6.5 apiece (USD1) to facilitate its employee stock incentives.

5G is coming. As the related infrastructure is improved, new application scenarios in virtual and augmented reality as well as high-definition videos are optimized, said Wang.

China Unicom may have more than 700,000 5G base stations by December and the number could exceed 1 million next year, said Wang. Investment in the novel technology is at its peak during the three years ending in 2022 as urban and industrial areas get connected, he added.

China Unicom has joined hands with China Telecom to jointly build 5G base stations and so far their total has reached 380,000. Building the infrastructure together has saved over CNY76 billion (USD11.7 billion) in costs for the two firms and made the process much faster, said the chairman. In 2020, China Unicom had invested CNY34 billion in 5G networks and plans to allocate CNY35 billion this year.

No Huawei Spillover Effect

Huawei Technologies' troubles seem to not have spread in the telecoms sector. China Unicom experiences no barriers as Huawei's purchasing restrictions in the US have not affected the mobile operator, Wang said, responding to a question about the phonemaker's situation and the global chip shortage.

China Unicom’s Shanghai-listed stock price [SHA: 600050] climbed 1.8 percent to CNY4.5 this morning. Its Hong Kong-listed shares [HKG: 00762] were 4.1 percent down at HKD4.64 (60 US dollar cents).

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi