China has 950m 4G users: ministry

BEIJING - China had a total of 950 million 4G network users as of the end of September, figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed Friday.

Chinese mobile internet subscribers have also increased their use of data services, with an average of 2 gigabytes of data consumed by each subscriber last month, up 140 percent from the same period last year, said MIIT spokesperson Zheng Lixin.

Also by the end of the third quarter, China had 280 million users of fiber-optic broadband, accounting for 82.7 percent of fixed-line broadband network users.

China has the world's largest 4G network and is aiming to add 2 million 4G base stations, mainly for townships and villages, by 2018.

China began a campaign aimed at faster and more affordable internet connection in 2015.

Since September this year, fees for domestic roaming and long-distance calls have been waived as data services have become a major source of revenue for mobile service operators.