BEIJING — China Unicom, the country’s second-biggest mobile phone carrier, said Thursday its first-quarter profit fell 68 percent due partly to costs from adding third-generation service.
Profit for the three months ending March 31 was 1.1 billion yuan ($161 million), or 0.05 yuan a share, the Beijing company said. Revenue edged up 6.6 percent to 40.4 billion yuan ($5.9 billion).
Expenses for the early stages of Unicom’s 3G business, depreciation, marketing and other expenses was “relatively significant,” the company said in a statement.
Unicom merged with China Netcom in late 2008 in a government-led restructuring of the country’s phone industry to boost competition.
Unicom and other carriers received 3G licenses last year, which is expected to drive revenues as users buy more services the technology supports. But carriers face high costs at the start to upgrade their networks and sign up customers.
Unicom is the licensed carrier for Apple’s iPhone in China but sales have been lackluster. The company forecast sales of 5 million iPhones over three years but said Feb. 3 it had sold only 300,000 so far.
Analysts estimate more than 1.5 million gray market iPhones in China were bought cheaper elsewhere and run on rival China Mobile’s network.
