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March 02, 2012

China Reaches One Billion Mobile Phone Subscribers

By Amanda Ciccatelli, TMCnet Web Editor

China, the world’s most populated nation, had been deemed the first country in the world to reach one billion mobile phone subscribers.

According to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the number of mobile phone subscribers in China had reached 997 million by late February 2012 and was expected to top one billion by the month’s end. China’s mobile market has now shot past that mark and had surpassed the 500 million mobile-phone users milestone in 2007, which means its mobile market has doubled in the last five years.



In October 2011, China’s mobile market reached 951.6 million with an additional 39 million users per quarter. According to China Internet Network Information Center, at the end of 2011, China had 440 million users who used mobile devices to go online, an increase from 305 million in 2010. Based on recent growth rates, the total number of users will surpass a billion sometime during this month. That being said, about 74 percent of China’s total population of 1.35 billion people owns a mobile phone.

Business Insider reported  that  China's mobile phone output rose last year by 15.5 percent over the previous year to 1.172 billion sets, among which, the export volume and value increased to 885 million sets and $62.76 billion. In 2011, the average export price of mobile phone saw an increase of 15 percent over 2010, the first rise after consecutive declines since 2007, which was mainly attributable to the considerable shipment of higher-priced smart phones, the iPhone (News - Alert) in particular.

Three years ago, China had 670 million mobile phone users. During the same period in 2010, that number reached 776 million. The country’s largest telecommunications company China Mobile (News - Alert) has the biggest market share with 67.3 percent, followed by China Unicom with 20.1 percent and China Telecom, the smallest of the three operators, has 12.6 percent share.

China Mobile has been listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) marked as the first company from China to be included in the list. In 2004, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) ranked China Mobile first among the top ten mobile operators by proportionate subscribers.

According a techwireasia.com article, while China maintains itself as the country with the most mobile phone users, India is quickly catching up, with an impressive telecommunications sector growth rate. A Telecom Regulatory Authority of India report showed that the wireless subscription base has recorded an increase of 227.27 million, totaling 893.84 million connections. The overall teledensity registered an increase from 52.74 at the end of March 2010 to 70.89 at the end of March 2011.

China’s 3G networks added around 15 million new subscribers over the first two months of 2012 putting them on track to surpass its 2011 3G network growth rate, which has made approximately 135 million subscribers in the nation. Analysts say that China’s smartphone sales have driven the force in the increase of 3G subscribers in the country.

Although mobile subscribers in China have breached the 1 billion mark, the country is still said to have room to grow, in terms of mobile broadband speeds and penetration. 




Edited by Carrie Schmelkin
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