SHANGHAI (CNA) – China’s shipments of smartphones compatible with 5G networks rose 63.5 per cent to 266 million last year as falling prices boosted demand, a government-think tank said yesterday.
5G smartphone shipments accounted for 75.9 per cent of domestic shipments, higher than a global average of 40.7 per cent, the China Academy of Information and Communications (CAICT) announced via WeChat.
It said buying of 5G smartphones had been encouraged by the price of such handsets falling below CNY1,000 (USD157.69).
By the end of November, the total number of smartphone subscribers of China’s top three telecom companies reached 1.64 billion, of which 497 million were connected to 5G smartphone terminals, up 298 million from a year earlier, the CAICT said.
The country’s top three telecom firms are China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
