According to today's People's Daily, the number of mobile phone users in the Chinese mainland reached 136 million by the end of October of this year, this means an increase of five million every month during the year, the Ministry of Information Industry said Tuesday.

   China's telecommunications sector continues to witness robust expansion and in the first ten months of this year, the total fixed asset investment in the sector amounted to 170 billion yuan (20.73 billion yuan), with the business volume growing by 23.5 percent over the same period of last year.

Meamwhile, the number of the fixed telephone users in the Chinese mainland stood at 174.76 million by the end of October of this year. Statistics show that the popularization rate of fixed telephone hits 24.4 per 100 persons and that of mobile phone 9.2 per 100 persons.

   China became the world's number one country with the biggest number of mobile phone users in July this year when the number reached 120.6 million.

   Under China's current five-year plan ending 2005, the number of mobile phone users will hit 260 million in five years.