5G Mobile Phone Users Tops 561 Million in China

The number of telephone users in China reached 1.863 billion in 2022, according to the Statistical Bulletin of the Communication Industry in 2022 released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. To be specific, the number of mobile phone users was 1.683 billion, with a net annual increase of 40.62 million. And the popularity rate was 119.2 mobile phones per 100 people, 2.9 mobile phones per 100 people more than that of 2021.

And 5G mobile phone users numbered 561 million, accounting for 33.3% of mobile phone users, an increase of 11.7% against last year. Besides, total fix-line telephone users hit 179 million, presenting a net decline of 1.286 million all year round. And the popularity rate was 12.7 mobile phones per 100 people, down by 0.1 mobile phones as compared with that of 2021.

The number of users with fixed broadband access is on the rise, as shown in the bulletin. Specifically, 590 million users subscribed to fixed broadband access from three basic telecom enterprises by the end of 2022, witnessing a net annual growth of 53.86 million. Among them, 554 million users subscribed to fixed broadband access with 100Mbps and above, with an annual increase of 55.13 million, which accounted for 93.9%, 0.8% higher than that of 2021. While users with access rates of 1000Mbps and above were 91.75 million, with a net annual increase of 57.16 million, which accounted for 15.6% of the total users, increased by 9.1% compared with that of 2021. Clearly, the popularization of fixed Internet broadband access services has been accelerated in rural areas. As of 2022, the total number of broadband users reached 176 million in rural areas in China, with an annual increment of 18.62 million, up by 11.8% over 2021. And its growth was 2.5% higher than that in urban areas.

In addition, users of the Internet of Things (IoT) are expanding at a rapid rate. Cellular IoT users had been developed for 1.845 billion households by the three basic telecom enterprises in 2022, which were 161 million higher than that of mobile phone users with an annual increase of 447 million, accounting for 52.3 % of the number of mobile network terminal connections (including mobile phone users and cellular IoT terminal users). By 2022, IPTV (network television) users developed by the three basic telecom enterprises amounted to 380 million, with an annual net growth of 31.92 million.