MIIT: Telecom business revenue totals RMB1.3 trillion in the first three quarters, down 2.5% year-on-year.

On October 28, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released the operating conditions of the communications industry for the first three quarters of 2026. In the first three quarters, telecom business revenue totaled RMB1.3 trillion, down 2.5% year-on-year. Total telecom business volume calculated at constant prices of the previous year increased by 7.3% year-on-year. The communications industry operated steadily overall, total telecom business volume grew steadily, new infrastructure construction advanced in an orderly manner, the user base for 5G, gigabit, and IoT continued to expand, and mobile internet access traffic maintained relatively rapid growth. The original text is as follows: Operating Conditions of the Communications Industry in the First Three Quarters of 2026 In the first three quarters, the communications industry operated steadily overall, total telecom business volume grew steadily, new infrastructure construction advanced in an orderly manner, the user base for 5G, gigabit, and IoT continued to expand, and mobile internet access traffic maintained relatively rapid growth. I. Overall Operating Conditions In the first three quarters, telecom business revenue totaled RMB1.3 trillion, down 2.5% year-on-year. Total telecom business volume calculated at constant prices of the previous year increased by 7.3% year-on-year. Figure 1: Cumulative growth rates of telecom business revenue and total telecom business volume II. Development of Telecom Users The gigabit user base continued to expand. As of the end of September, the total number of fixed internet broadband access users of the three basic telecom operators reached 709 million, a net increase of 18.25 million compared with the end of the previous year. Among them, fixed internet broadband access users with access rates of 100Mbps and above reached 678 million, accounting for 95.6% of total users; fixed internet broadband access users with access rates of 1,000Mbps and above reached 265 million, a net increase of 26.45 million compared with the end of the previous year, accounting for 37.4% of total users, up 2.9 percentage points from the end of the previous year. 5G users developed rapidly. As of the end of September, the total number of mobile phone users of the three basic telecom operators and China Broadnet reached 1.854 billion, a net increase of 26.67 million compared with the end of the previous year. Among them, 5G mobile phone users reached 1.32 billion, a net increase of 116 million compared with the end of the previous year, accounting for 71.2% of mobile phone users. Figure 2: 5G mobile phone users Mobile IoT terminal users grew rapidly. As of the end of September, the three basic telecom operators had developed 3.117 billion mobile IoT terminal users, a net increase of 229 million compared with the end of the previous year. The number of internet TV (IPTV, OTT) users reached 407 million, a decrease of 1.029 million compared with the end of the previous year. III. Usage of Telecom Services Mobile internet traffic maintained relatively rapid growth, and the June DOU value remained high. In the first three quarters, cumulative mobile internet access traffic reached 336.2 billion GB, up 17% year-on-year. As of the end of September, the number of mobile internet users reached 1.638 billion, a net increase of 27.99 million compared with the end of the previous year. In September, average monthly mobile internet access traffic per household (DOU) reached 23.89 GB/householdmonth, up 12.5% year-on-year and 0.85 GB/householdmonth higher than at the end of the previous year. Telephone call volume continued to decline. In the first three quarters, outgoing mobile phone call duration totaled 1.4 trillion minutes, down 6.9% year-on-year; fixed-line originating call duration totaled 42.02 billion minutes, down 17.3% year-on-year. In the first three quarters, national mobile SMS business volume fell 10.5% year-on-year; mobile SMS business revenue fell 11.8% year-on-year. IV. Communications Capacity The total length of optical cable lines increased steadily. As of the end of September, the total length of national optical cable lines reached 76.73 million kilometers, up 3.1% year-on-year. Among them, access network optical cables, local network relay optical cables, and long-distance optical cables accounted for 60.5%, 38%, and 1.5%, respectively. Gigabit fiber broadband network construction advanced steadily. As of the end of September, the number of national internet broadband access ports reached 1.273 billion, a net increase of 22.43 million compared with the end of the previous year. Among them, fiber-to-the-home/office (FTTH/O) ports reached 1.232 billion, a net increase of 21.11 million compared with the end of the previous year, accounting for 96.7% of internet broadband access ports. As of the end of September, the number of 10G PON ports capable of providing gigabit network services reached 33.4 million, a net increase of 1.779 million compared with the end of the previous year. 5G base stations accounted for 40%. As of the end of September, the total number of 5G base stations reached 5.254 million, a net increase of 416,000 compared with the end of the previous year, accounting for 40% of total mobile base stations, up 2.4 percentage points from the end of the previous year. V. Regional Development All regions accelerated the promotion of gigabit user penetration. As of the end of September, the penetration rates of fixed broadband access users with 1,000Mbps and above in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions were 36.7%, 38%, 38.7%, and 33.2%, respectively, up 2.1, 4.1, 2.6, and 4.2 percentage points from the end of the previous year; the penetration rates of 5G mobile phone users were 70.5%, 72.2%, 71.3%, and 72%, respectively, up 5, 5.7, 5.4, and 5.5 percentage points from the end of the previous year. Mobile internet access traffic in all regions maintained double-digit growth. In the first three quarters, mobile internet access traffic in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions reached 143 billion GB, 77.79 billion GB, 95.37 billion GB, and 20.1 billion GB, respectively, up 18.5%, 15.1%, 16.3%, and 17.1% year-on-year. This article is excerpted from MIIT; edited by Chen Siyu for GMTEight.