A recent industry data set has raised serious concerns, highlighting the continued grim situation in the government-enterprise (G&E) business development for the three major telecom operators.

This data reveals that one operator's total G&E business revenue remained in negative growth during the first five months of the year, with only about half of its provincial subsidiaries achieving positive growth. This means that nearly half the year has passed, yet the operator's G&E business performance has shown no signs of improvement.

In previous years, the G&E business of the three major operators was highly anticipated, often referred to as the "second growth curve." However, in recent times, the development of this business has become less optimistic for all three. Among them, China Mobile has performed relatively well. According to its latest disclosure, its 2025 revenue from government and enterprise customer segments reached 240.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%. Although it achieved positive growth, this was previously characterized by double-digit expansion. Furthermore, this figure represents revenue scale only; the actual profitability behind it remains uncertain.

Turning to China Telecom Corporation Limited, the latest official data shows that its 2025 industrial-digital (产数) business growth rate is less than 1%. In contrast, its 2024 industrial-digital revenue was 146.6 billion yuan, but this year it has consistently been in negative growth territory. In the past, this segment also experienced double-digit growth rates.

As for China Unicom, the most recent data available remains from 2024, when its computing-network digital intelligence business revenue was 82.49 billion yuan, an increase of 9.6% year-on-year. Since then, the company has stopped disclosing this data, and the cessation of such disclosure itself indicates a lack of confidence in its development.

In summary, the current G&E business development of the three major operators is worrying. It can no longer effectively support revenue growth, while revenue from traditional market businesses has long been considered unreliable. Consequently, since the start of 2025, the revenue growth rates of all three operators have remained below 1%. Surprisingly, China Mobile, which has the largest revenue scale, has the highest revenue growth rate, a fact that is hard to believe. It is no wonder that an industry professional recently stated bluntly, "The good days for the three major operators are nearly over!"