Data from the Ministry of Information Industry show that the total number of telephone users in China has exceeded 600 million.

From January to July telephone users in China increased by more than 76 million, of which the number of fixed-line telephones increased by more than 36 million to 299 million and that of mobile phones increased by 40.26 million to 310 million. The total number of telephone users has reached 609 million.

Statistics also show that by the end of July communication business revenues in China has approached 330 billion yuan - an up by 12.5 percent year on year, of which telecommunication business accounts for 297.4 billion yuan increasing by 13.4 percent year on year and postal business accounts for 32.3 billion yuan increasing by 5.4 percent year on year.

Mobile messaging business continued to grow fast. From January to July business volume has approached 120 billion messages increasing by 68.7 percent year on year.

Investment in communication fixed assets grew steadily and has reached 105.6 billion yuan an up by 12 percent year on year, of which investment in telecommunication fixed assets account for 104.7 billion yuan an up by 12.5 percent.

China's telephone users exceeded 500 million in October last year. It took China only 10 months to increase another 100 million users.

Source: Xinhua