The Operational Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently released the economic performance report for the telecommunications industry in the first quarter of 2025.
According to the data, as of the end of March, the total number of mobile phone users across China's three major telecom operators and China Broadcasting Network reached 1.8 billion, marking a net increase of 9.945 million users since the end of the previous year. Among these, 5G mobile phone users reached 1.068 billion, a net increase of 54.45 million users, accounting for 59.4% of all mobile phone users.
Based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the national population was 1.408 billion at the end of 2024. This indicates a mobile phone user penetration rate of 127.84% in China.
In March, the average data usage per user (DOU) reached a record high. In the first quarter, total mobile internet traffic amounted to 87.65 billion GB, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 14.8%. By the end of March, the number of mobile internet users reached 1.577 billion, a net increase of 6.759 million since the end of last year. The average mobile internet data usage per user in March was 20.56 GB per user per month, representing a year-on-year increase of 13.7% and an increase of 0.86 GB per user per month compared to the end of last year.
Regarding network infrastructure, as of the end of March, the total number of 5G base stations reached 4.395 million, a net increase of 145,000 since the end of the previous year. This accounts for 34.4% of all mobile base stations, an increase of 0.8 percentage points from the end of last year.
Notably, as of the end of March, the three major telecom operators had developed 2.728 billion cellular IoT terminal users, a net increase of 72.18 million since the end of last year. The scale of cellular IoT users has now surpassed that of mobile phone users by more than 50%.