China Mobile Ltd earned 96.8 billion yuan (US$12.46 billion) in profit before tax last year, growing 23 percent from a year earlier, and the world's biggest cell-phone operator by number of users said.

Its sales income reached 285.3 billion yuan, rising 21 percent from a year earlier, the company said.

The company gained a record of 4.83 million subscribers last month, bringing the total number of users to 318 million, up 20 percent from 2005.