China Mobile and China Telecom picked up more than 17 million 5G subscribers in April, taking their combined tally to 65.45 million six months after introducing the new service.

Market leader China Mobile added 12.02 million, ending the month with 43.7 million. It had a net gain of 432,000 mobile subcribers in April for a total of 946.7 million.

Deputy GM Jian Qin said it aims to have 100 million 5G subscribers by the end of the year and had deployed 124,000 compatible base stations in 56 cities as it targets a total of 300,000 by the year-end, C114.net reported.

China Telecom added 5.09 million 5G subscribers in April, taking its total to 21.7 million: net additions of 1.97 million took its overall user base to 338.5 million.

Third-ranked China Unicom has not released April subscriber figures and did not issue 5G numbers over the opening three months of 2020.