China's telecom sector registers stable growth in Jan-July

BEIJING - China's telecommunications industry posted stable growth in the first seven months of the year, official data shows.

The combined industrial revenue totaled 872.1 billion yuan (about $134.2 billion) in the January-July period, up by 8.7 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The growth rate was 5.6 percentage points higher than the figure a year ago, the ministry said.

By the end of July, China's three telecom giants -- China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom -- had nearly 1.62 billion mobile phone users, up by 25.21 million compared with the end of last year, the data showed.

China also saw faster growth of 5G subscribers. The number of 5G terminal connections stood at 392 million by the end of July, up by 193 million from the end of last year, according to the ministry.

The three telecom companies saw a steady increase in the number of fixed broadband internet users, with subscribers rising to 514 million by the end of July, a net increase of 30.19 million from the end of last year.