China's mobile phone users hit 710 mln in August

Oct. 7, 2009 (China Knowledge) - China's telecom carriers added 7.85 million mobile phone users in August, bringing the total to 710.5 million, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

MIIT said that revenues from the telecom sector rose 3.2% from a year earlier to RMB 168.15 billion in the first eight months of the year. In August, revenues reached RMB 77.04 billion.

SMS messages sent in August hit 64.09 billion, and the total number of SMS messages sent in the first eight months of this year amounted to 509.53 billion.

However, the number of fixed-line subscribers fell by 1.96 million in August, while broadband subscribers rose by 1.8 million, bringing the total to 97.23 million in the first eight months of the year.

China is the largest handset market by user base. Its top telecom carrier China Mobile Ltd<0941><CHL> is the world's largest by subscribers and mobile network.