News, China, Mobiles:  Cell phone ownership figures for China grow and grow. As of 30 September China boasted 377 million mobile phone subscribers, or a teledensity of 29%.

Even in the few months since June this year, when the government reported 350 million users, the rise has been nearly 8% - and not so far off 24% up from 305 million in June 2004.

China’s Ministry of Information Industry revealed that in August 2003 China had already become the largest cell phone market anywhere, with 250 million subscribers. Immediate beneficiaries are the SMS providers who enabled 218.5 billion messages to be sent, ie, 40% up in one year.

The country’s passion for telecoms is proven even more when fixed line telephony is analysed - 345 million users by the end of September.