China has 1.06 bn mobile phone connections

BEIJING, CHINA: China has a staggering 1.06 billion mobile phone accounts, authorities said.

Of these, 183.8 million subscribed to 3G network services, the industry and information technology ministry said.

In the first seven months of this year, the country added 75.8 million mobile phone users. Seven out of every 10 newly added cell phone users were 3G subscribers, the China Daily reported Tuesday.

The number of fixed-line telephone users dropped by 1.91 million during the same period.

China Mobile Ltd had 688 million mobile subscribers by July, of which 69 million were 3G users.

China Unicom Ltd had 60.6 million 3G users, with a total mobile user base of 222 million. China Telecom Corp Ltd said it had 146.9 million mobile phone subscribers.