China Has World’s Largest Online Population With 1.32 Bln Mobile Internet Subscribers

Tang Shihua

(Yicai Global) May 22 — Driven by the rapid development of communication technology, the popularity rate of smartphones and internet among Chinese people has reached a fairly high level. China’s online population now is the world’s largest one.

The total number of mobile internet subscribers of the country’s three major telecom operators, namely China Mobile Communications Group Co., known as China Mobile, China Telecom Corp., and China United Network Communications Group Co., better known as China Unicom, has climbed to 1.32 billion, according to the latest data released by China’s ministry of industry and information technology, MIIT, yesterday.

At the end of last month, the three basic telecom operators had a total of 1.48 billion mobile phone subscribers and 1.32 billion mobile internet subscribers, and the internet penetration rate among mobile phone subscribers was 82.2 percent, show MIIT data.

The total number of 4G subscribers has reached nearly 1.1 billion, and the total number of broadband internet subscribers has hit 366 million, the ministry said. As of the end of last month, the three telecom operators had a total of 1.08 billion 4G subscribers, state-run news agency China News Service reported, citing data from the ministry.

In terms of broadband penetration, the three basic telecom operators’ total number of fixed broadband internet users with 50 Mbps and above was 280 million, about 76 percent of the total number of subscribers, with the number of those with 100 Mbps and above access rate reaching 172 million, 47 percent of the total.

One of the goals of the ministry in reducing internet access fees and increasing internet speed this year is to ensure more than half of household broadband users to have access to broadband speeds of 100 Mbps and above, Wen Ku, director general of MIIT’s department of information and communication development, said earlier.

China started a campaign aimed at faster and more affordable internet connection in 2015. Shanghai had the fastest download speed of 18.41 Mbit/s from fixed-line broadband network in the Chinese mainland, followed by Beijing and Jinan, capital of East China’s Shandong province, late last year, according to the country’s industry organization Broadband Development Alliance.

Editor: Mevlut Katik