The latest statistics released by China's Ministry of Information Industry on Tuesday show that, by the end of March, China's total number of phone subscribers had already broken 674 million, of which mobile users exceed 349 million, with a diffusion rate of 25.9 percent.

Among all phone subscribers, over 325 million are fixed-line telephone subscribers, increasing 12.962 million compared to the end of the previous year, with a diffusion rate of 24.9 percent.

The statistics further indicate that from January to March of this year, China's communication services revenue achieved the goal of 150.45 billion yuan, an increase of 8.8 percent compared to the same period last year. Postal services achieved revenues of 13.92 billion yuan, increasing 6.3 percent over the same period last year, while telecommunications revenues reached 136.52 billion yuan, up 9.1 percent over last year.

In the last three months, the growth rate of China's telecommunications revenue declined a little compared to the same period last year. The revenue growth rate of the last three months could not reach 10 percent. However, before 2004, the figures were always above 10 percent. This indicates that China's telecommunications market is becoming saturated, since there is no obvious growth point at this stage.

(Chinanews.cn April 29, 2005)