Statistics issued by the Ministry of Information Industry of China (MII) yesterday show that by the end of this May, the number of mobile phone users in China has exceeded 420 million.

 

According to the statistics, the gap between the number of mobile phone users and that of fixed telephone users keeps widening. During the first five months this year, China's mobile phone users rose 5.4788 million in number every month on average, more than twice that of fixed phone users. Up to the end of May, the gap between mobile phone users and fixed telephone users had surpassed 57 million.

 

With the development of mobile communication industry, mobile SMS volume increases rapidly. Statistics demonstrate that during the first five months, mobile phone users in China sent 167.95 billion messages totally, going up 46.3 percent year on year.

 

Officials of MII anticipate that by the end of this year, China's mobile phone users will reach 441 million. China became the country with the most mobile phone users in the world in 2001. The mobile communication industry still maintains a stable uptrend after years of robust development.

 

(Chinanews.cn June 22, 2006)