China Telecom, the country’s biggest fixed-line carrier, posted second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as the introduction of the iPhone attracted a substantial number of new users to its wireless unit, reports “Bloomberg” (http://macte.ch/DjHm5). The company began offering subsidized iPhone sales on March 9,
Net income fell 10% to 4.55 billion yuan (approximately $716 million), from a restated 5.05 billion yuan a year earlier, China Telecom reported. That exceeded the 4.4 billion yuan median of seven analysts’ estimates in a “Bloomberg News” survey.
“It looks like the negative impact of iPhone subsidies was not as strong as people expected in the quarter, and average revenue per user was higher than we expected,” Marvin Lo, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Mizuho Securities, told “Bloomberg.” “The rising iPhone and smartphone penetration helped increase average revenue per user.”
