China's 4G network users grow to 1.24 billion

BEIJING - China's 4G network users grew to 1.24 billion by the end of July, according to recent statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The number of users on China's 4G network account for 78.2 percent of the total mobile phone users, up 3.8 percentage points from the end of last year, said the MIIT.

The revenue in China's telecommunications industry dropped by 0.3 percent year-on-year to 889.5 billion yuan (about $125.6 billion) from January to July, MIIT data showed.

In breakdown, fixed-line telecommunications revenue of three major operators - China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom - totaled 245.8 billion yuan, up 9.5 percent year-on-year, accounting for 31.6 percent of the country's telecommunications revenue. However, mobile telecommunications revenue of the three operators slipped by 4.1 percent year-on-year to 532.9 billion yuan during the same period.

Growth in revenue was mainly driven by new businesses such as internet data centers, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, according to the MIIT.