China's Communications Industry Soars

From Asia Times Online:

"China's communications industry registered 1.11311 trillion yuan (US$141.3 billion) in business volume in the first nine months of 2006, increasing by 25.1% year on year.

In a breakdown, telecom business revenue reached 1.05892 trillion yuan, up 25.5% year on year, and services business revenue rose by 17.9% year on year to hit 54.19 billion yuan."

"The number of fixed-line phone users in China increased by 18.861 million to reach 369.306 million by the end of September."

"Meanwhile, the number of mobile-phone users increased by 49.748 million in the January-September period, hitting 443.154 million by the end of September."

"The communications industry completed 144.31 billion yuan in fixed-assets investment in the first nine months of this year, 17.7% higher than that in the same period of 2005."