China added 16.45 million broadband users in the first nine months, bringing the total to 99.33 million, data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Tuesday showed.

China had 360 million Internet users by the end of September, said Zhu Jun, deputy director of the telecom development department under the MIIT. The figure was compared with 338 million by the end of June.

Broadband was available in 96 percent of townships, and 91 percent of administrative villages had access to Internet by the end of September.

China is also pushing forward construction of 3G network. In the first nine months, the top three telecommunication operators injected 96.1 billion yuan (US$14.07 billion) in building 3G network.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2009)