China's information industry grew fast in the first half of this year, with business revenue totaling 281.59 billion yuan (US$34.05 billion) by the end of June, up 13 percent over the same period of last year.

The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry reported that business revenue in telecommunication was 253.61 billion yuan (US$30.67 billion), and that of postal service was 27.98 billion yuan (about US$3.38 billion), up 13.8 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively, during the period.

In the meantime, 68.071 million households added telephones, with 32.741 million adding fixed lines and 35.33 million adding cell phones. Fixed telephone users and cell phone users in China now total to 295.488 million and 305.283 million, respectively.

Statistics show the number of Chinese with access to broad-band has reached 17.331 million, an increase by 6.583 million from last year. A total of 99.63 billion pieces of text message have been delivered and received through mobile phone, up 71 percent over the same period of last year.

Coverage rate of fixed telephone and cell phone both reached to 23.7 percent.

From January to June, completed fixed asset in information industry was 89.44 billion yuan (US$10.81 billion), and in telecommunication sector 88.64 billion yuan (US$10.71 billion), up 12.9 percent over the corresponding period.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2004)