China’s telephone users almost at 1bn

The number of telephone users in China is edging increasingly closer to 1 billion, although the number of landline subscribers is falling.

Official figures from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show 960 million telephone users in China at the end of July, 608 million of which are mobile phone subscribers.

45.6% of the Chinese population now owns a mobile phone.

The number of mobile phone users in China increased 61 million between January and July. This is a record average growth rate of 8.7 million per month.

Over 290 million mobile phone users are in the more developed Eastern region of China.

In July, 57.76 billion text messages were sent in China, an average of 3.08 messages per phone number per day.

Fixed-line subscribers fell 10.6 million in the first seven months of this year, with a total of 355 million at the end of July.