State-owned carrier China Mobile recorded a 1.12% increase in net profit last year to reach 107.84 billion yuan ($16.49 billion) on the back of speedy 5G adoption across the country, an annual earnings report released this week showed.

The telecommunications company brought in 768.1 billion yuan in operating revenue, up 3.0% from 2019. At nearly 700 billion yuan, telecommunications services accounted for the bulk of this.

China Mobile’s 5G user migration was faster than expected last year, according to a CLSA report, and in 2021 the company, which is the largest carrier in the world by subscribers, is targeting 200 million 5G network customers by year end.

“We expect China Mobile to be the 5G winner with ARPU (average revenue per user per month) regrowing in 2021,” the report said.

The company had 165 million 5G users at the end of 2020, compared with 70.8 million for China Unicom and 86.5 million China Telecom, according to the CLSA report, implying a 51% market share.

China Mobile finished its annual 5G network growth target ahead of schedule this year, company chairman Yang Jie said Wednesday, and now claims to have the largest 5G standalone network in the world.

In a cross-operator poll, more than 85% of users in China found 5G service to meet or exceed their expectations, according to a 2021 poll by industry interest group Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA).

The government and state-owned companies have invested more than $40.2 billion invested to date in China’s 5G network, the most of any country in the world, and more than 700,000 5G base stations have now been built across the country, industry and information technology vice-minister Liu Liehong said.

The bulk of these were erected last year, according to the GSMA, with 600,000 put up despite pandemic lockdowns.