The number of mobile phone subscribers in China hit a record 416 million at the end of April, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said on Sunday.

Statistics show that the number increased by 23.216 million in the first four months, more than twice the increase of fixed-line users. There are 55.7 million more mobile subscribers than fixed-line users.

The average monthly increase in mobile users has been between 3 million and 4 million in the past year, said the ministry.

China's mobile subscribers have been growing steadily since they outnumbered fixed-line phone subscribers in October 2003.

Along with the increase in mobile phone subscribers, the short message volume climbed 46.5 percent from the previous year in the first four months to 132.25 billion.

The ministry also said in the January-April period this year China's total post and telecommunications revenue reached 229.31 billion yuan (around 28.6 US billion dollars), up 11.7 percent over the same period last year.

China imported its first mobile phone telecommunication facilities in 1987 and it took a decade for the number of subscribers to reach 10 million. Four years later, the country had the largest number of mobile phone subscribers in the world.