Some areas of China's fast- growing telecommunications industry showed signs of a slowdown in the first 10 months this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The output of program-controlled switchboards increased by 5.9 percent year-on-year to 35.55 million lines between January and October, the bureau said.

However, production of optical communications equipment plummeted 30.5 percent on an annual basis to 13,741 units, and that of carrier communications equipment dropped 4.4 percent to 6, 252 units.

In the meantime, the country produced 24.09 million sets of mobile communications equipment during the period, a drastic increase of 46 percent.

Production of computers during the time enjoyed a 258-percent increase to a total of 4,753 units while that of microcomputers soared 68.4 percent to 3.49 million.

Computer manufacturers in China have enjoyed a rapid growth these years, and recent surveys show that more and more Chinese are planning to buy their own personal computers. (Xinhua)