China: mobile phone subscriptions by month 2021-2024

As of October 2024, there were over 1.78 billion mobile cell phone subscriptions in China. According to official government statistics, the country had a penetration rate 99.8 percent for mobile internet. It becomes clear, therefore, why the Chinese economy and society reached such a high degree of digitalization.

Completely state-run

The backbone of the mobile network is an efficient communications network. In China, three state-owned telecommunication companies are responsible for the construction and maintenance of the national cellular network. Together with the government, China Unicom, China Mobile, and China Telecom also built the country’s 5G infrastructure. In 2023, the three enterprises invested a almost of 150 billion yuan in next-generation mobile internet technology.

Digital multitool

In China, smartphones have become a central tool in everyday life. Recently, mobile payments have slowly replaced cash and cards, with e-commerce revolutionizing shopping behavior for millions of Chinese consumers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mobile phone has become a crucial tool for public health. Citizens are required to carry a health code on their phone which shows how much the risk exposure of a person is depending on proximity to coronavirus infections.