China's mobile phone users top 416m
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-05-22 11:32
The number of mobile phone subscribers in China hit a record 416 million at
the end of April, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said on Sunday.
Statistics show that the number increased by 23.216 million in the first
four months, more than twice the increase of fixed-line users. There are 55.7
million more mobile subscribers than fixed-line users.
The average
monthly increase in mobile users has been between 3 million and 4 million in the
past year, said the ministry.
China's mobile subscribers have been
growing steadily since they outnumbered fixed-line phone subscribers in October
2003.
A girl uses her mobile phone sending
messages. The number of mobile phone subscribers in China hit a record 416
million at the end of April.[newsphoto] |
Along with
the increase in mobile phone subscribers, the short message volume climbed 46.5
percent from the previous year in the first four months to 132.25 billion.
The ministry also said in the January-April period this year China's
total post and telecommunications revenue reached 229.31 billion yuan (around
28.6 US billion dollars), up 11.7 percent over the same period last year.
China imported its first mobile phone telecommunication facilities in
1987 and it took a decade for the number of subscribers to reach 10 million.
Four years later, the country had the largest number of mobile phone subscribers
in the world.
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