The number of mobile phone users in China nearly doubled to 85.3 million last year, helped by the popularity of services such as short messaging, according to Business Weekly, citing a report from the Ministry of Information Industry. 

The number of users was up 97 pct from 43.3 million users in 1999, it said. 


Many Chinese, especially in the cities, decided to become cell phone users because of new services such as short messaging. 


More value-added mobile services are expected in the coming months and many market analysts expect the growth momentum in the industry to be maintained, the paper said. 


In another sign of the explosive growth of China's cell phone market, mobile telecommunications accounted for 42 pct of last year's total telecoms revenue of 307.4 billion yuan. 


China's fixed-line telecoms market saw more modest growth of 35 million users last year, the paper reported, adding that this, given previously published statistics, suggests China's fixed-line market grew by 32 pct to 145 million users.