According to insider sources, by the end of November 2025, China Telecom still had 10 provincial branches experiencing a decline in "cloud infrastructure" revenue, with several units seeing particularly severe drops and being directly named by the corporate group, potentially leading to significant subsequent repercussions. It is reported that these provincial companies include Tianjin Telecom, Hainan Telecom, Liaoning Telecom, and Henan Telecom, among which Tianjin Telecom and Hainan Telecom witnessed their cloud infrastructure revenue fall by more than 30%. During this same period, China Telecom Group's overall cloud infrastructure revenue achieved positive growth, with a double-digit growth rate. In stark contrast, the development of cloud infrastructure at these specific provincial branches appears quite unfavorable. It is understood that cloud infrastructure refers to the underlying infrastructure and platform systems constructed by telecom operators to support the development of businesses such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and big data, serving as the core foundation for their digital transformation and intelligent services. Observing these provincial companies, it becomes evident that those with slow cloud infrastructure development are mostly smaller-scale provincial branches or those located in northern regions, which also correlates to some extent with the developmental foundation of the companies themselves. An industry expert noted that a decline in telecom operators' cloud infrastructure revenue also indicates obstacles in their transformation towards enterprise services, with slowing growth in the enterprise market revenue, which could potentially create a vicious cycle.
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