China Telecom sees 'slight' growth in '07

China Telecom estimated at its 2008 working conference that its main business turnover hit 177.1 billion yuan ($24.5 billion) in 2007, up by a slight 2.4% year on year.

Local media reports that the company's net profit was expected to reach 26.6 billion yuan ($3.6 billion), up 1.9% year on year.

Meanwhile, China Telecom said its telephone user number reached 227 million by the end of 2007, while its broadband user number reached 38.1 million, its Biz Navigation service subscriber population reached two million, and its e-Customer service subscriber population reached 11 million.

Though still keeping a big customer group, China Telecom lost 2.74 million users in the first 11 months of 2007, and is expected to record its first customer-churn year since it made the IPO in 2002.

However, the company made a breakthrough in the northern China market in 2007, where China Netcom Group, the parent company of China Netcom is taking a lion's share. It is estimated to generate 3.32 billion yuan ($438 million) in business turnover from this market in the year, up 7.4% year on year.

Wang Xiaochu, the company's general manager, said the broadband service sector and value-added service sector have become the main driving force to China Telecom's growth in business turnover, while the Biz Navigator service and the e-Customer service have become the backbone.