(Telecompaper) China Telecom reported first-quarter revenues up 6.9 percent year-on-year to CNY 83.18 billion. Service revenues, excluding mobile device sales, rose a faster 8.1 percent to CNY 71.15 billion. EBITDA increased just 0.6 percent to CNY 25.09 billion, amid a rise in personnel and network costs, while net profit was up 17.9 percent to CNY 5.55 billion thanks to lower financing costs. China Telecom suffered a loss of 2.3 million mobile customers in the three months, for a total 183.2 million at the end of March. The company blamed the decline on the intense market competition and launch of new 4G offers by operators. China Telecom's 3G subscriber base rose by 1 million compared to December to 104.1 million, and the operator launched its first LTE services in February. Mobile voice traffic was down compared to Q4 and Q1 2013, while China Telecom said ARPU was stable compared to 2013. In the fixed market, the company lost another 3 million local access customers compared to year-end, to finish March with a total 152.8 million, hurt by continued mobile substitution. Wireline broadband subscribers grew by 2.2 million in the same period, for a total 102.3 million.