China Telecom first-quarter net profits flat

China Telecom's net income in the first quarter rose 0.5% year-on-year to US$893 million, Bloomberg reported. Revenues increased 1.6% to US$6.23 billion in the same period. China's biggest fixed-line operator said its subscribers dropped by 920,000 in March, with a total of 3.2 million subscribers leaving the company in the first quarter. It had 217.2 million fixed-line subscribers at the end of March. The company gained 2.1 million broadband internet subscribers in the first quarter, with 730,000 subscribers signing up in March, for a total of 37.7 million. China Telecom has lost fixed-line subscribers for at least eight consecutive months. An analyst said China Telecom would continue to lose users to mobile phone operators.