China Mobile reported a 15 percent drop in its annual net revenue in the first half of the year. The company’s  revenue generated from telecom services fell 1.3 percent, according to a statement filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The company’s net profit in the six months to June 30 was RMB 56 billion, compared to RMB 65.6 billion in the same period last year. Its subscribers roughly increased 10 million in the first half of the year.

According to the Ministry of Information and Technology report, China’s 4G penetration rate reached 84 percent in the beginning of the year. China has ramped up its efforts in 5G development initiatives with a robust body of research and implementation from Huawei and ZTE. 

That said, other  state-owned network carriers such China Unicom and China Telecom have also invested efforts in 5G development. 

The mainland’s second-largest mobile chip developer Unisoc is preparing to launch a 5G chipset in 2020. There is media speculation that the launch might closely compete with global chip leaders such as Qualcomm and MediaTek in an effort to sever their dependence on US suppliers.

Unisoc is a subsidiary of the Tsinghua Unigroup. Previously, the company had established a partnership with Intel to use x86 cores in mobile processors which did not succeed as expected. 

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