China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest phone company by users, added a record number of customers last month as fixed-line operator China Telecom Corp lost telephone subscribers for the third straight month.

About 6.6 million people signed up for China Mobile's services last month, making a total of 356.3 million, according to the Beijing-based carrier's website.

That is more than the population of the United States and Canada combined. China Telecom's total phone subscribers fell by 880,000, it said in a statement yesterday.

China Telecom and China Netcom Group Corp (Hong Kong) Ltd rose in Hong Kong trading for the second day after an official said the fixed-line companies may be granted licenses to provide high-speed wireless services.

China Mobile's growth may spur the government to speed up the issuing of third-generation permits to promote competition in the industry, Bloomberg News reported.

"Mobile substitution is the trend, and there's not much the fixed-line operators can do," Marvin Lo, a Hong Kong-based analyst said.

(Shanghai Daily November 21, 2007)