BEIJING - China Telecom, one of China's three largest telecom service operators, reported a 5.5-percent net profit growth in the first three quarters of the year.

Net profit attributable to shareholders stood at 18.5 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) during the period, according to a statement on the company's website.

Operating revenue also rose 4.1 percent year on year to 275 billion yuan from January to September.

China Telecom added 25.56 million users in the first nine months of this year, bringing total users to 241 million, of which more than half are 4G network customers.

Mobile data traffic surged 142 percent in the first three quarters, with every 4G subscriber using data plans of 1.5 gigabytes on average each month.

Broadband users increased 8.19 million to 131 million, of which 122 million are optical broadband subscribers.