The number of mobile telephone users reached 184.86 million by the end of August, with 4.54 million new subscribers for that month alone.

"The mobile phone sector still has rich growth potential with the cell phone penetration rate standing at only 14 per cent," said Zhang Chunlin, deputy director of MII's Planning Department.

The mobile phone penetration rate is higher than 50 per cent in most of the developed countries, he said.

China's fixed-line telephone users reached 203.53 million by the end of August. But the number of new fixed-line users, 2.5 million for August alone, is much smaller than that for cell phone users.

the number of mobile telephone users in China may match that of fixed-line telephone subscribers by the end of the year.

The revenue of telecom operators totalled 262.99 billion yuan (US$31.7 billion) for the first eight months of this year, a 16 per cent growth year-on-year.

The telecom operators invested 80.5 billion yuan (US$9.7 billion) in basic infrastructure during the eight months, a drop of 26 per cent from the figure for the same period in the previous year.

The shrinkage in investment was a result of structural readjustments within the major fixed-line carriers, the official said.

(China Daily September 19, 2002)