China's cell phone users will reach 441 million in 2006 while Internet users is expected to be 128 million, said an official with the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) on Tuesday.

 

Wang Jianzhang, Director of the Comprehensive Planning Department of MII, said at the press conference on the development and policy of China's telecommunication industry, that fixed telephone users will increase by 30 million to 380 million in 2006 with a year-on-year growth of 8.6 percent.

 

Among users of fixed telephone, those using personal access phone system will grow by 15.3 million to 101 million in 2006, he said.

 

The MII estimated that by the end of 2006, per one hundred Chinese people will have 29 fixed telephones and 34 cell phones.

 

China's telecom business will keep a growth over 20 percent with its annual business volume reaching 1.44 trillion yuan in 2006 and the revenue of the telecom industry will be 639 billion yuan with a year-on-year growth of 10.2 percent, said Wang.

 

According to statistics of the MII, China's Internet users reached 111 million and cell phone users exceeded 400 million by the end of 2005.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2006)