The number of phone users in the Chinese mainland reached 430 million at the end of last month, China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said on Friday.
By the end of January, fixed phone users had reached 218 million and mobile phone subscribers had reached 212 million, respective increases of 3.58 and 5.82 million compared with figures at the end of last year, according to MII.
The number of short messages sent via cell phone in January 2003 in China reached 8.193 billion, compared with 90 billion for 2002.
China was reported the world's largest telephone usage at the end of last July when its 380 million users exceeded those of the United States.
(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2003)
