The number of telephone users in China had surpassed the 618 million mark by the end of August this year.

According to the latest statistics, the number of fixed line users in China reached more than 303 million, with another 312 million using handsets.

These kinds of figures translated into big revenues for China's communications industry in 2004, with an industry total at nearly 46 billion US dollars, up about 12 percent from last year.

The revenue for the telecom industry is about 41 billion US dollars, and the revenue for postal services is about 5 billion.

Meanwhile, a marriage between telephone communication and postal communication comes in the form of SMS texting, whose volume for the first 8 months of this year rose 67 percent compared to last.

(CCTV.com September 23, 2004)