Viet Son Net

China Mobile (NYSE:CHL, 0941.HK) recorded 5.33 million new subscribers in April, down from 5.97 million new subscribers in March, to bring its total number of customers to 544.21 million, the company reported May 20. Its 3G network users reached 8.4 million by April 30, compared with 7.69 million by the end of March.

China Unicom (NYSE:CHU, 0762.HK, 600050.SH) added a net of 681,000 3G users and 733,000 2G users in April, to bring its respective 3G and 2G user totals to 5.51 million and 148 million subscribers. The company gained 596,000 broadband users in the month to reach 42.1 million, while fixed-line users fell by 201,000 to 101.64 million.

China Telecom (NYSE:CHA, 0728.HK) had a total of 183.03 million fixed-line subscribers by the end of April, after losing 1.2 million during the month, while the carrier’s broadband subscriber base grew by 810,000 to 56.65 million by the end of April. The company’s mobile user base increased by 3.03 million in April to reach a total of 68.48 million, including CDMA and PHS subscribers.

China Unicom (NYSE:CHU, 0762.HK, 600050.SH) made net profit of RMB 1.13 billion in the first quarter of 2010, down 68.3% year-on-year, the company reported April 29. The telecom carrier reported revenues for the quarter of RMB 40.42 billion, or RMB 40.34 billion after adjusting for the effect of deferred upfront connection fees, representing an annual increase of 6.8%, the report said. The company’s mobile services generated RMB 18.63 billion over the quarter, up 11.9% year-on-year, of which 3G business accounted for RMB 1.59 billion, the report said. Average revenue per mobile subscriber (ARPU) per month came to RMB 41.5, the report said. Revenues for broadband services increased 23.8% year-on-year to RMB 7.13 billion, with an ARPU of RMB 59.5, the report said.

According to reports citing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China Unicom accounted for 26.7% of China’s 3G users by the end of March.

Sina (Nasdaq:SINA) has already developed its own search engine that could replace Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) search on the Sina homepage, cctime.com reported Friday quoting a Sina public relations chief.

Virtual community site Tianya Club is implementing a new plan to continue operating without Google’s help, the report said quoting Tianya CEO Xing Ming. Tianya Club said Friday that it has not suspended its cooperation with Google for its interactive community and Q&A sites, and the parties are still negotiating solutions after Google.cn began redirecting traffic to its Hong Kong site, DoNews reports March 26.

China Mobile’s (NYSE:CHL, 0941.HK) mobile application service Monternet has switched from Google’s search engine to “Monternet search,” reports Chinareviewnews.com. An unnamed source said China Mobile also planned to terminate contracts for the use of Google’s search engine in China Mobile’s wireless application protocol homepage, said the cctime.com report.

China Unicom (NYSE:CHU,0762.HK,600050.SH) said earlier this week that its handsets with Google’s Android operating system will no longer offer Google search functions.

Operator China Unicom said it will remove Google’s mobile search services from phones running the digital services provider’s Android mobile OS, a direct response to Google’s decision to defy Chinese censorship mandates by redirecting users to its uncensored Hong Kong website. China Unicom, the nation’s second largest mobile carrier, said its Android manufacturer partners will instead determine which search tool is embedded on their phones. “We are willing to work with any company that abides by Chinese law… we don’t have any cooperation with Google currently,” said China Unicom president Lu Yimin. China Unicom’s decision follows on the heels of similar statements by China Mobile, its largest competitor–the company offers a host  of Android-based smartphones, but last week, chairman Wang Jianzhou played down its ties to Google, saying that the two did not have an exclusive relationship.

According to Chinese government data, the nation boasts 745 million mobile subscribers and 384 million active mobile web users, presenting a massive revenue opportunity for service providers and manufacturers alike. Earlier this month, with the feud between Google and Chinese lawmakers escalating, Motorola announced an agreement with Microsoft to deploy the software giant’s Bing search and mapping services across Android-powered smartphones sold in the Chinese market, effectively reducing its dependence on Google mobile services in China or elsewhere.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin told The Wall Street Journal that he pushed the company to abandon its Chinese search engine because China’s efforts to censor the web recalled the “totalitarianism” he faced as a child growing up in the Soviet Union. China has “made great strides against poverty and whatnot,” Brin said. “But nevertheless, in some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see the same earmarks of totalitarianism, and I find that personally quite troubling.”

For more on China Unicom’s Android moves:
- read this Financial Times article

China Mobile (NYSE:CHL, 0941.HK) added 5.52 million subscribers in February, up from 5.12 million new subscribers in January, to bring its total number of customers to 532.9 million, the company reported March 22. G3 customers using the company’s 3G network had reached around 4.28 million by February 28, up from 3.898 million at the end of January. Wang Jianzhou, Chairman and CEO of China Mobile, said in a Friday interview that China Mobile is looking at acquisition and investment targets in Asia and Africa as profit growth slows at home, the Wall Street Journal reported March 19.

China Unicom (NYSE:CHU, 0762.HK, 600050.SH) added a net of 470,000 3G users and 736,000 2G users in February to bring its respective 3G and 2G user totals to 4.065 million and 146.39 million subscribers. The company gained 791,000 broadband users in the month to reach 40.31 million, while fixed-line users fell by 410,000 to 102.11 million.

China Telecom (NYSE:CHA, 0728.HK) had a total of 185.63 million fixed-line subscribers by the end of February, after losing 1.03 million during the month, while the carrier’s broadband subscriber base grew by 780,000 to 55.03 million by the end of February. China Telecom’s mobile user base increased during the reporting period by 3.01 million to a total of 62.15 million, including CDMA and PHS subscribers.