China Mobile reports 510 million 4G users, sees room for growth

(Reuters) - China Mobile Ltd, the mainland's largest telecom service provider, said on Tuesday it had 510 million fourth-generation (4G) network customers in 2016, representing more than 30 percent of the world's total 4G users. In October, China Mobile said it added 168 million 4G customers in the first three quarters of the year, bringing its 4G subscribers to 481 million. Chief Executive Li Yue, speaking at a conference in the southern city of Guangzhou on Tuesday, also said China Mobile's wireless business accounted for 46 percent of revenue. The firm brushed off any concerns about a slowdown in growth and said it targeted sales of 400 million 4G phones next year. "We have nearly 400 million 2G/3G customers so the potential demand for 4G is still huge," said Vice President Sha Yuejia. (Reporting Sijia Jiang, writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Himani Sarkar)