Chinanews, Beijing, March 22 - Mobile phones have become more and more popular in China, and they might even take the place of fixed telephones in the near future.

 

Currently there are 892 million telephone subscribers in China, only 368 million being fixed telephone subscribers. It is estimated that the gap between the number of fixed telephone subscribers and that of mobile phone subscribers will only become wider.

 

Due to the decreasing of the mobile phone charges (including both PHS and cell phone), the number of mobile phone subscribers leaped by 30% in 2006, while it was the first time for the fixed telephone population to drop last year.

 

According to the estimation of the Ministry of Information Industry, China Telecom will have 72 million new subscribers in 2007, 80% of whom will be PHS subscribers.