Over 100m use China's own 3G system

THE number of users on China's own 3G mobile network surged 84.1 percent year on year to surpass 100 million for the first time at the end of February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday.

At the end of last month, 104.2 million mobile phone users used the home-developed TD-SCDMA. They accounted for 40 percent of the national 3G user base, according to the ministry, which is the IT industry regulator.

The ministry added that it's inevitable for the 3G user base to increase while the number of 2G users declined.

At the end of February, there were 1.13 billion mobile phone users in China, a rise of 19.88 million from the end of last year. The 3G penetration rate rose to 23 percent from 20.9 percent over the same period.

But the TD-SCDMA 3G technology is relatively less commercially mature compared with two other global systems. China Mobile, which adopts the TD-SCDMA, aims to upgrade its network to the faster 4G network and is now building 4G networks in 20 cities across the country.

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