The mobile phone subscribers in China soared to 592 million by the end of May, nearly half of its 1.3 billion population, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday.

The number rose by 44.8 million in the first five months of this year as mobile operators cut phone rates to attract customers, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday.

The fixed-line users, however, dropped by 6.5 million to 358 million.

The telecom sector reported a revenue of 330.6 billion yuan (US$48 billion) in the five months, an increase of 9.6 percent from a year ago.

Meanwhile, fixed-asset investment in the telecom industry rose 2.7 percent to 75.1 billion yuan (US$11 billion).

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2008)