SHANGHAI, Aug. 16 -- CHINA Mobile Ltd announced today it had a 29 percent rise in profit in the second-quarter as the company added record subscribers by focusing on rural areas.

Net income of the company, the world's largest cellular operator by users, jumped to 20.3 billion yuan (US$2.7 billion) from 15.8 billion yuan a year ago.

The Beijing-based company added 16.3 million users from April to June after cutting charges and offering services such as movie and video downloads.

Shares of the nation's largest mobile phone carrier on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange have more than doubled in the past year as it expanded its sales push to the more than 800 million rural residents who don't yet have mobile phones.

It announced in precious reports that the company had a monthly record of 5.53 million new customers in June, raising its total number of subscribers to 332.4 million.

The country's Ministry of Information Industry in March said the nation expects to have 600 million mobile subscribers and 400 million fixed-line users by 2010.

In June, the ministry said the number of mobile-phone users would reach more than 500 million by the end of this year's second quarter, double that of the United States.