Mobile phone users hit 786.5m in April

BEIJING - The number of mobile phone users in China reached 786.5 million at the end of April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Tuesday.

In April alone, users increased by 9.63 million, or 1.2 percent month-on-month, bringing the number of telephone users - both fixed line and mobile - to 1.09 billion.

The number of Chinese households using fixed line telephones, however, fell by 6.14 million to 307.55 million, the ministry said.

About 111 million users had access to broadband Internet services at the end of April, the statement added.

According to the ministry, the country's telecommunications industry reported income of 967.38 billion yuan ($141.6 billion) in the January-April period, up 21.7 percent from a year ago.