China Telecom Corporation's profit jumped 17.4 percent year on year to 17.55 billion yuan (2.86 billion U.S. dollars) in 2013, according to its annual report filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK) on Wednesday.

The increase, which contrasted to the 9.5 percent decline in 2012, was mainly attributed to the company's 3G business. The number of 3G mobile subscribers surged 49.3 percent to 103 million by the end of last year.

The company's revenue totaled 321.58 billion yuan, up 13.6 percent year on year, with revenue excluding mobile phone sales at 284.15 billion yuan, up 10 percent from the previous year.

The number of mobile subscribers reached 186 million, up 15.5 percent year on year, said the report.

China Telecom is the nation's largest fixed-line service, and the third largest mobile telecommunications provider in terms of subscriber number after China Mobile and China Unicom.

Its shares on the SEHK slipped 1.25 percent to finish at 3.15 Hong Kong dollars per share on Wednesday.