The number of new mobile subscribers hit a record high of 8.48 million in January, taking Chinese total mobile users to exceed 555 million.

The continuous falling of handset prices and user charges has directly led to a sharp increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers, Wang Lijian, a spokesman of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) told Xinhua on Thursday.

Mobile phones are becoming must-have items for every Chinese person, Wang said.

Meanwhile, the number of fixed-line subscribers shrank nearly 1.5 million to less than 364 million, the sixth month of decline in a row, according to the latest figures from the ministry.

The ministry forecast last month that China's phone subscribers total, mobile and fixed line combined, are expected to hit 976 million in 2008, with mobile phone subscribers accounting for 46.4 percent of the population.

By the end of 2007, China had 365 million fixed-line subscribers and 547 million mobile subscribers, the two figures combined accounted for a fifth of the world's total phone subscribers, according to the MII.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2008)