According to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, by the end of June 2008, the number of mobile phone users in China had reached 601 million while the number of fixed telephone users declined.
The statistics show that the total revenue of the major Chinese telecom operators was CNY398.79 billion in the first six months of 2008, which is a year-on-year increase of 9.2%. The telecom investment in fixed assets was CNY113.64 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%.
The development difference between telecom businesses varied greatly in the first half of 2008. The revenue of mobile communications network was CNY213.66 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%, and it accounted for 53.6% of the total telecom revenue; the revenue of local fixed telephone network was CNY87.95 billion, a decrease of 6.4% and accounted for 22.1% of the total revenue; the revenue of long-distance call network was CNY59.2 billion, a decrease of 1.3% and accounted for 14.8% of the total revenue; and the revenue of data communications network was CNY37.42 billion, an increase of 40.4% and accounted for 9.4% of the total revenue.
From January to June 2008, the number of phone users increased by 44.135 million to a total number of 957.078 million across China. Of which the number of mobile phone users reached 601 million, which increased by 53.451 million.
From the regional distribution, the number of phone users was 461 million in the eastern areas; the number was 286 in the middle areas; and 206 million in the western areas of China.
In addition, the broadband sector developed rapidly in the first half of 2008. The number of new broadband access of the Internet users in basic telecom enterprises was 9.593 million. Of which, the number of broadband users increased by 1.559 million to totally 76.007 million in June, while the number of dial-up users decreased by 3.449 million.