Almost one in two Chinese people now has a mobile phone, while the number of fixed-line subscribers has fallen, state media reported on Thursday. The number of cellphone subscribers in the nation of 1.3 billion stood at 592 million at the end of May, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting Ministry of Information Industry figures.
The figure was up nine percent from 547.3 million at the end of 2007, according to previously released official data. The Xinhua report said the main factor behind the growth was a trend for operators to cut fees in order to gain market share.
Meanwhile, the fixed-line users fell 6.5 million in the first five months of the year to 358 million, it said.
China has been leapfrogging into the age of mobile telephony because of the huge costs associated with installing fixed lines across a nation the size of the United States. Under a long-anticipated industry restructuring plan announced last month, China will create three telecom giants to bring balance back to an industry where mobile operators have prospered and fixed-line players lagged behind.