China Unicom has posted its results for the first quarter of financial year 2013. The company’s net profit for the quarter increased by 89 per cent, to 1.9 billion yuan, while revenues increased by 15.4 per cent to 57.06 billion yuan.

Revenues from its mobile services witnessed an over 20 per cent increase, to 35.24 billion and the company added 11.4 million mobile subscribers during the quarter.

Consequently, Unicom's 3G user base increased to 87.8 million, and 3G services accounted for 54.6 per cent of the company's total mobile customer base.

Meanwhile, revenues from fixed-line services increased by 5.4 per cent to 21.66 billion yuan and broadband service revenues increased by 11 per cent, to 11.21 billion yuan.

While Unicom's total expenses grew by 13.7 per cent year-on-year as a result of network expansions, 3G terminal subsidy costs as a percentage of 3G revenues declined from 15.8 per cent in the first quarter of financial year 2012 to 11.6 per cent in the first quarter of financial year 2013, due to the availability of lower-cost smartphones.