China Telecom H1 profit rises 8.1 pct, beats estimate

China Telecom Corp on Monday said its net profit for the first half of the year rose 8.1 percent on mobile data growth and increased 4G subscribers.

Net profit over the six months ended June was 13.57 billion yuan ($1.97 billion), slightly above an average estimate of 13.25 billion yuan from five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Operating revenue rose 4.7 percent to 193 billion yuan, versus an average analyst estimate of 194 billion yuan.

China Telecom said the number of 4G mobile subscribers rose by 35.27 million in the period to 217 million, while aggregate handset internet data traffic increased by nearly four times.