There were more than 798 million telephone users in China at the end of July, with cell phone users topping 431 million, said the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) on Monday.

According to statistics released by the MII, given the growing numbers of rural cell phone users and people who have several cell phone numbers, the number of cell phone users in China has risen by an average of 5.5 million each month since the end of 2005.

A total of 238.5 billion text messages were sent by cell phone in the Jan.-July period, 44.9 percent up over the same period last year.

The number of land lines grew 2.31 million a month to reach 366 million at the end of July.

China has become the world's largest mobile communications market. There are 28 landline phones and 32.7 mobile phones for every 100 people.

MII statistics also show that China's telecommunications sector earned revenue of 405.29 billion yuan (US$50.7 billion) in the first seven months of the year, a year-on-year rise of 11.4 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2006)