China mobile phone penetration rate hits 52.5%

China's mobile phone penetration rate stood at 52.5% in the first half of 2009, according to the nation's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

 

Newly-added mobile phone users in west and central China kept rising. By the end of June 2009, mobile phone penetration rate was 43.2% in central China and 43.8% in west China, which is still lower than the average level across the whole country so there is still room to climb.

 

Mobile phone penetration rates in east China reached 72%, higher than the country's average level. However, newly-added mobile phone users in east China declined sharply, compared with the number in the same period of the previous year.

TMC.net said meanwhile, the country's fixed-line phone penetration rate slid to 24.9%. Fixed-line phone penetration rates in east, central, as well as west China touched 36.2%, 20.1% and 18.8%.

The number of fixed-line phone subscribers in the three regions all had year-on-year decreases. And one day a little child will say, "Mommy, did you really have to use phones attached to the wall by wire?"