China had 300.559 million mobile phone subscribers by the end of May of this year, rising from over 100 million in March 2001 and 200 million in November of 2003, the Ministry of Information Industry said Monday.

The figure exceeded that of fixed-line subscribers, which stood at 290.401 million, and rural areas accounted for 30 percent of the fixed-line phone subscribers.

China's mobile phone users outnumbered fixed-line phone subscribers in October 2003.

China imported its first mobile phone telecommunication facilities in 1987, and it took a decade for its number of subscribers to jump to 10 million by 1997.

Four years later, the number of the country's mobile phone subscribers ranked the first in the world.