China's telecom sector posts steady growth

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

The combined industrial revenue reached 574.1 billion yuan ($81 billion) during the period, up 2.8 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Revenue from fixed-line communications of the three telecom giants -- China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom -- totaled 196.5 billion yuan in the period, rising 12.2 percent from last year.

By the end of last month, the number of mobile phone users rose 0.2 percent year-on-year to about 1.6 billion, including 1.28 billion 4G subscribers.

The data also showed that the number of fixed broadband internet users in China grew steadily during the period, with 86.1 percent of the subscribers' internet speed reaching over 100 Mbps.