The latest data from the Ministry of Information Industry, reported the overseas edition of the People's Daily, shows 190.62 billion pieces of short messages had been sent through mobile phones in China, up nearly 4 percent over the same period of last year. The revenue from this service, if every piece costs the minimum price of 0.1 yuan, would exceed 19 billion yuan.

The figure seems to indicate that mobile short messages the whole year would be very likely to exceed last year's record of 220 billion pieces. The constant increase in the number of mobile subscribers is thought to be the main reason for the rising messages.

By the end of August, there had been more than 370 million mobile users in China, 37.95 million more than that in the last year. The number of fixed-line phone users had exceeded 340 million. That means there are 28 mobile phones and 26 fixed-line phones respectively among every hundred people.

By People's Daily Online