Apr. 23, 2008 (China Knowledge) - China Telecom<728><CHA>, the largest wireline telecommunications and broadband services provider in the world, announced that its net profits slightly went up by 0.5% in the first quarter to RMB 6.251 billion.

The China Securities News cited the company's quarterly report that its operating income hits RMB 43.646 billion during the Jan-Mar period, up 1.6% year on year. EBITDA amounted to RMB 22.671 billion, up 0.4%.

The number of fixed line subscribers went down by 3.16 million to 217 million users, while the broadband subscribers rose by 2.06 million to reach 37.71 million, which is 3.82 million more than that of the same period of 2007.