The number of phone users in China has surpassed one billion by the end of June, boosted by the launch of the third-generation (3G) network, statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has shown.

China added 43.5 million phone users during Jan-June, bringing the total to 1.025 billion.

During the period, fixed-line telephone users dropped by more than 10 million, while mobile phone users jumped by nearly 54 million.

To improve 3G network efficiency, China's top three telecommunication operators, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, invested 80 billion yuan so far this year.

The top three operators have started trial 3G operation, which allows mobile phone users to download data faster, make video calls and watch TV shows.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2009)