China's telecommunications industry registered faster revenue growth in the first half of the year, official data shows.
The combined industrial revenue rose 8.7 percent year on year to 753.3 billion yuan (about 116.52 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, quickening by 2.2 percentage points from the growth in the first quarter, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
By the end of June, China's three telecom giants -- China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom -- had over 1.61 billion mobile phone users, up by 19.85 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 365 million by the end of June, up by 166 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 510 million by the end of June, a net increase of 26.06 million from the end of last year.
