Mobile communications led China's telecom industry growth from January to June, with a year-on-year rise of 18.1 percent in revenue, accounting for 46.5 percent of the sector's income.

Statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry showed that China's telecom industry as a whole reported revenues of 313.89 billion yuan (US$39.24 billion) in the first half of the year, an increase of 10.7 percent from the same period of last year.

Revenue from data communications posted a year-on-year increase of 24.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the proportion of revenue from fixed-line services fell by 2.82 percentage points in the January-June period, while revenue from fixed-line long-distance services dropped 0.97 percentage point.

In the first six months, the country's postal sector generated 345.57 billion yuan in revenue, an increase of 17.2 percent year on year.

The investment in fixed assets in the telecom sector totaled 85.67 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up 9.1 percent over last year's same period.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2006)