China’s telecom revenue falls 2.5% to 130 million yuan in first three quarters of 2026

The split between falling revenue and rising constant-price business volume points to continued price compression in Chinese telecom services: carriers are moving more traffic at lower unit prices, a pattern that erodes top-line growth even as usage expands. That matters for anyone tracking state-linked digital infrastructure spending, since telecom revenue is a rough proxy for operator capex capacity. The open question is whether the volume-revenue gap narrows as newer service lines scale, or persists as a structural drag on the sector's earnings base.