China has 1.13 bn phone users by August

BEIJING: China's phone subscribers rose to 1.13 billion by the end of August, Xinhua reported Saturday.

Yang Xueshan, vice minister of industry and information technology, made the remarks at a forum in Shanghai Saturday, but he did not give separate figures on fixed-line and mobile phone users.

According to the ministry, the country's phone users stood at 1.11 billion by the end of June, with 805 million mobile and 305 fixed-line phone users.

China's internet users reached 420 million by the end of June, with the Internet penetration rate hitting 31.8 percent, said Yang.

The sales revenue of China's electronics and information products manufacturers exceeded 2.8 trillion yuan in the first half of the year, Yang said.

The software industry generated a revenue of 723.1 billion yuan in the Jan-July period, up 29 percent year on year, the official added.