China's telecom sector posts steady growth in first 8 months

BEIJING -- China's telecommunications industry saw steady growth in the first eight months of this year, data showed.

The combined industrial revenue reached 915.3 billion yuan (about $134.36 billion) during the period, up 3.1 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Revenue from fixed-line telecommunications of the three telecom giants -- China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom -- totaled 310.8 billion yuan during the period, rising 11.6 percent year on year.

By the end of last month, the number of mobile phone users of the three firms rose 0.2 percent year on year to 1.598 billion, including some 1.29 billion 4G subscribers.

Data also showed that the number of fixed broadband internet users in China grew steadily during the period, with subscribers of the three firms reading 470 million by the end of August, up 6.1 percent year on year.