According to the operational report of the telecommunications industry for the first half of 2025 released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's mobile phone user base has grown steadily, with 5G users developing rapidly. By the end of June, the total number of mobile phone users across the three major telecom operators and China Broadcasting Network reached 1.81 billion, a net increase of 19.93 million since the beginning of the year. Among them, 5G mobile phone users totaled 1.118 billion, a net increase of 104 million since the end of 2024, accounting for 61.8% of all mobile phone users.
From a regional perspective, 5G penetration rates have risen steadily across all parts of the country. The penetration rates in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions were 61.5%, 62.6%, 61.5%, and 61.9%, respectively, up by 4.8, 5.4, 5.1, and 5.7 percentage points compared to the end of 2024.
Behind this rapid user growth is the continuous improvement of 5G infrastructure. By the end of June, China had built a cumulative total of 4.549 million 5G base stations, an increase of 298,000 since the beginning of the year, accounting for 35.7% of the country's total mobile base stations—up 1.3 percentage points from the first quarter. With the pilot deployment of new technologies such as "10G PON" and "5G-Advanced," 5G networks are expanding from urban areas to counties and rural regions, with ongoing optimization in network quality and service capabilities.
Currently, 5G is not only serving individual users but is also being rapidly adopted in industrial internet, smart cities, telemedicine, and intelligent transportation. Meanwhile, the three major telecom operators have connected a total of 2.831 billion mobile IoT endpoints, many of which rely on 5G networks for high-speed, low-latency connectivity, providing strong support for the "intelligent interconnection of all things."
Additionally, mobile internet data traffic in the first half of the year reached 186.7 billion GB, a year-on-year increase of 16.4%. The average monthly data usage per user (DOU) in June was 20.75 GB, up 14.4% year-on-year, with 5G networks playing a key role in supporting this rapid traffic growth.