China Telecom 1Q Revenue CNY40.62 Bln; Total Users 195.1M

HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--China Telecom Corp. (CHA), the listed unit of China's largest fixed-line operator, Friday reported first-quarter revenue of CNY40.62 billion.

It didn't give a comparative figure.

It said it added 47.8 million local telephone service customers in the three months ended March 31, bringing the total to 195.1 million.This total figure includes users of residential, public and business phones, as well as the 47.8 million customers of its localized mobile-phone service called Little Smart.

Excluding deferred income stemming from upfront connection fees, revenue for the first quarter was CNY38.92 billion, up 6% on year, China Telecom said in a statement.

China Telecom stopped charging its customers for the installation of new phone lines starting 2002, but has since started booking deferred income for the service, which will span 10 years.

The company said it added 1.88 million broadband customers during the quarter, bringing the total to 15.7 million.

-By Julie Wang, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; julie.wang@dowjones.com

-Edited by Sharon Buan and Andrew Bullard

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 22nd April 2005