The company may also build some of the TD networks for itself but still hopes licenses covering globally developed FDD standard will still be granted, Wang noted.
“We'll capture the opportunity to deploy an LTE trial network in a timely and appropriate manner… We will proactively participate in discussion to strive for the most favorable regulatory policies, especially on the issuance of LTE license,“ he said.
As such, China Telecom, which spent 33 billion yuan on capex in the first half, will increase its full year capex to 80 billion yuan from the planned 75 billion yuan.
This comes as the country’s smallest mobile carrier by subscribers, posted a nearly 16% rise in net profit in the first half due to strong growth in 3G subscribers and high data revenue.
Net profit hit 10.213 billion yuan ($1.67 billion) in the first six months ended in June, up 15.9% year on year, while revenue totaled 158 billion yuan, up 14.1% from a year ago. The result was in line with the average 10.12 billion forecast of four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
The Chinese telco lifted handset subsidies by 22% to 14.08 billion yuan, as the company stepped up marketing spending to lure more high-end 3G customers after it became the second Chinese cellco to sell Apple’s iPhone last year.
The company last year said the iPhone would help it achieve long-term sustainable growth even as it caused “short-term pressure” on profitability. The efforts appear to have paid off.
Mobile service revenues rose 28.3% to 54.6 billion yuan and accounted for 35% of the total revenues.