Phone subscribers in south China's economic engine of Guangdong Province reached more than 100 million by Sunday, taking lead in the sector of the country.

 

This included nearly 35 million fixed telephone subscribers and more than 65 million mobile phone subscribers. The figure of the subscribers surpasses the total population of Guangdong's permanent residents, according to the statistics with provincial administration of telecommunications industry.

 

It took just a decade for Guangdong to develop from 10 million phone subscribers to the current 100 million, said Jiang Yaoping, vice minister of information industry, at Monday's celebration of the milestone Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong.

 

Statistics show that one eighth of China's phone subscribers come from Guangdong, which in turn creates one sixth of the country's business turnover in the telecommunications industry.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2006)