China's 5G mobile subscription share surpasses 70 percent

Beijing (ANTARA) - China continued to expand its 5G network this year, with the number of 5G mobile subscribers reaching 1.3 billion by the end of July, or 70.5 percent of the country’s total mobile subscribers, according to official data released on Friday (28/8).

The three major Chinese telecommunications operators and China Broadnet collectively had 1.85 billion mobile subscribers by the end of July, according to data from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Construction of new-type infrastructure continued to make steady progress in the first seven months of this year. The number of 5G base transceiver stations (BTS) reached 5.15 million by the end of July, a net increase of 316,000 units compared with the end of last year.

Mobile internet traffic increased rapidly during the period, reaching 258.7 billion gigabytes, up 17.6 percent year on year (yoy).

The number of mobile Internet of Things (IoT) terminal users from the three major telecommunications operators reached 2.99 billion by the end of July, an increase of 105 million compared with the end of last year.

Fixed broadband service users continued to migrate to gigabit services. The three major telecommunications operators had 702 million fixed broadband subscribers by the end of July. Of that number, 260 million were gigabit broadband service users, or 37.1 percent of the total, up 2.6 percentage points compared with the end of last year.

China has built the world’s largest information infrastructure. Gigabit optical network access is available in every region, while the 5G network covers all urban areas and more than 95 percent of administrative villages.

China continues to promote the implementation of the Digital China initiative, targeting an increase in the added value of core digital economy industries to 12.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030, according to the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030).