Phone users swell to 1.1 billion

The number of phone users in China surpassed 1.1 billion at the end of May – growing rapidly in the first five months of the year, state media reported. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology figures released Tuesday also showed that during the period, fixed-line telephone users dropped about 7.8 million to 306 million, while mobile phone users rose 48.5 million to 796 million. Broadband internet users in China jumped nearly 9.8 million to 113 million by the  end of May. Meanwhile, China’s telecommunications industry recorded about US$181 billion of business income in the five-month period, up 21.6% on the year.