China’s three major mobile operators added 28.4 million 5G package subscribers in January taking their combined total to 757.9 million, almost half of the nation’s total mobile users.

Total mobile connections hit 1.7 billion at end-January, meaning 5G contracts accounted for 45.6 per cent.

China Mobile signed up 14.5 million 5G connections for a total of 401.3 million; China Telecom’s count rose 8.3 million to 196.1 million; and China Unicom closed the month with 160.5 million, up 5.6 million.

Data from GSMA Intelligence showed the US lagged China with 53.1 million 5G connections at end-2021, followed by Japan (24.7 million), South Korea (20.9 million), Germany (6.3 million) and the UK (5.3 million).

The big-three Chinese operators added an average of 34 million 5G package subscribers each month in 2021.

China Mobile’s overall mobile subscriber base rose by 4.5 million in January to 961.4 million; China Telcom’s was up by 3.1 million to 375.5 million; China Unicom’s increased by 1.1 million to 318.2 million.