China had more than 860 million phone users by the end of May this year, partly thanks to a growing rural market, statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry have shown.

The figure included 494 million mobile phone users and 372 million fixed-line subscribers, according to the ministry.

The number of rural users has been on the rise since the second half of 2006. With new registration of about 1.7 million in the January-May period this year, the total rural phone subscribers have topped 118.1 million, according to the ministry.

In May alone, the nation recorded new mobile phone subscribers of 7.16 million, while the number of new fixed-line users in the first five months was 4.39 million.

The revenue of the country's telecommunications business rose 10.1 percent from a year earlier to 318. 67 billion yuan (US$ 43.65 billion) in the first five months this year, said the ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17 2007)