China's phone subscribers, mobile and fixed line combined, are expected to grow by more than 60 million in 2008 to hit a total of 976 million, according to the Ministry of Information Industry.

The ministry said Friday that by the end of this year, China's fixed-line and mobile phone subscribers will account for 27.1 percent and 46.4 percent of the population, respectively.

Sources from the ministry said that the continuous falling of mobile communication charges has directly led to a sharp increase in mobile phone subscribers and some people even replaced their fixed-lines with mobile phones. In 2007, China's mobile phone subscribers increased by 86.22 million, while fixed-line subscribers fell by 2.33 million.

By the end of 2007, China had 370 million fixed-line subscribers and 530 million mobile subscribers, the two figures combined accounted for a fifth of the world's total phone subscribers, according to statistics from the ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2008)