China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile) announced on Thursday that the number of the company's subscribers increased by 25.77 million in the first half of 2006, bringing the total number to 274 million by June 30.

Wang Jianzhou, president of China Mobile, said at a press conference on Thursday that the company's net profit in the first half of 2006 reached 30.17 billion yuan (3.78 billion U.S. dollars) , up 25.5 percent over last year's same period.

He said the interim dividend declared per share is 0.62 HK dollar, together with a special dividend of 0.09 HK dollar.

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