218.5bn text messages sent by Chinese mobile-users

China has 377 million mobile phone subscribers, or an average of 29 mobile phones per every 100 people, the government reported today.

The figure is up 7.7% from June, when the government reported 350 million users, and up 23.6% from 305 million in June 2004.

China was already the biggest mobile-phone market when in August 2003 it reported 250 million subscribers.

Helped by that growth, the number of short text messages sent in September by mobile devices rose 40.2% over a year earlier to 218.5 billion, the Ministry of Information Industry said in a report carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Though outnumbered by mobile-phone users, the number of fixed-line telephones also rose to a total of 345 million by the end of September, the report said.