Mobile phone users to reach 1.1b by year's end

Mobile phone accounts in China are expected to surpass 1.1 billion mark by the end of the year, according to a report from Beijing-based research company Analysys International.

By June, the total number of mobile phone users in China reached 1.05 billion, an increase of 1.08 percent year-on-year, the report said.

One out of every six Chinese mobile phone users currently subscribes to 3G network services, the report estimated. It predicted the penetration rate could be more than 20 percent by the end of the year.

Liu Lihua, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said on Tuesday that China had 184 million 3G users by July. The total mobile phone accounts were 1.062 billion in the same period. Liu made the remarks at the 2012 International Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing.

China is the world's first country to reach the 1 billion mark. The country took less than five years to double its mobile phone accounts to 1 billion, adding subscribers at a steady pace of between 8 million to 12 million a month in recent years.