China cell-phone use hits 140 million


Growth in cell phone users outstrips land lines in China, the world's largest market, though there are still more fixed lines

By Alex Frew McMillan
CNN Hong Kong

BEIJING, China -- China now has 140 million cell-phone users, officials say.

It added 54.6 million mobile users in 2001, through November, strengthening the country's claim as the biggest cell-phone market in the world.

China's two mobile phone companies, China Mobile and China Unicom, added 4 million users in November, the Ministry of Information Industry reported on Thursday.

That's lower than the 5 million average they added per month for 2001. But it boosts China's mobile market even further beyond the United States.

The United States had 118 million mobile-phone users as of June, according to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.

Official figures show that China surpassed the United States as the largest cell-phone market sometime this northern summer.

Unicom readies a push

Perhaps due to the time lag and different collection methods, Chinese officials have played down the statistic, saying only that China rivals the United States.

China recently started admitting that its data are flawed on the economic front, where outside experts have questioned the accuracy of its growth, inflation and unemployment figures.

China Mobile accounts for the bulk of China's cell-phone users, with China Unicom claiming only 27.5 percent of the market. But it aims to boost that to 35 percent by 2005.

To build out its network, Unicom is preparing the largest stock offering in the history of China's markets, with a 12.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) A share offering in Shanghai.

Customers favor mobile phones in China, where applying for a traditional fixed line phone is a lengthy process.

Growth in fixed-line customers is slower, with 32.9 million customers added this year. The total of 177 million fixed-line users still outdoes mobile phones, though.

In Hong Kong, now an autonomous Chinese region, there are more cell phones than fixed lines. But the latest statistics show that the number of cell phones has actually started to drop in Hong Kong, a sure sign the market is tapping out.