BEIJING, Jan. 21 -- China's telecom business revenues increased 3.6 percent in 2014, 5.1 percent lower than in 2013, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Wednesday.

Last year's telecom revenue stood at 1.154 trillion yuan (188.4 billion U.S dollars).

The number of mobile phone users continued to grow, with an ownership rate of 94.5 units per hundred people. In ten provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Hainan, each person owns more than one mobile phone on average.

Thanks to improved telecom infrastructure,the growth of 4G network users surpassed that of 3G users. Last year, 972.8 million people subscribed to the former, while the latter attracted 836.4 million.

Instant messaging applications such as WeChat continued to encroach on the turf of traditional business, such as short message services, which fell 14.4 percent last year, widening from a 0.6 percent decline in 2013.