China, a country with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, had 467 million mobile phone users by the end of January 2007, indicating that one out of three Chinese owned a mobile, latest official statistics showed.

As mobile service fees decreased and the vast rural market for mobile phones continued to open up, the number of mobile phone users in mainland China expanded rapidly. In January this year, the figure surged by 6.33 million, according to a recent report from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). About 65 percent of Chinese people still don't own mobile phones, and over 85 percent of the cellphone-less Chinese are rural residents.

The MII said the number of telephone users had reached 835 million by the end of January 2007, with that of fixed-line telephone users reaching 368 million. A total of 41.16 billion text messages were sent by mobile phone users in January, up 22.1 percent year on year. Chinese mobile phone users sent 15 billion SMS texts of Chinese New Year greetings in the Spring Festival holiday week over February 17-23, 2007.

Meanwhile, China's two major fixed-line telephone operators have signed an agreement to confine each other to their major geographical markets to limit competition, media reports said. China Telecom -- which operates in central and southern China -- and China Netcom which is based in the northern region, were split off from the former nationwide monopoly China Telecom to spur competition in the sector.

The world's largest mobile operator China Mobile gained 4.86 million subscribers in January, compared with 4.83 million last December, and its user base increased to 306.1 million by the end of January, 2007. With more users than the U.S. population, China Mobile has targeted rural areas for expansion as the almost saturated market in the cities has little room for growth.

The two mobile operators in the mainland, China Mobile and China Unicom, have been rolling out special packages offering free incoming calls in their Beijing and Guangdong service areas in the past two months, and the long-awaited one-way billing schemes will be introduced to other parts of the country soon this year.

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