China had over 600 million mobile phone users by June this year, which means every one in five mobile phone users in the world is a Chinese.

According to Xie Feibo, vice director of the Radio Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Information Industry, the number included 80 million personal handy phone (PHS) users.

Addressing a forum on Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises in Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong province, Feibo said that official figures showed that the nation's cell phone users increased by 40.56 million from the end of last year or, 6.76 million a month on average.

Meanwhile, fixed-phone users had only grown by 4.86 million to 372 million.

China introduced its first mobile telecommunications equipment in 1987. There were then more than 700 users. In 2001, its cell phone users reached 100-million, the largest in the world, and the figure turned to 300 million in May 2004, 400 million in January 2006.

The trend shows no sign of stopping as China still has a vast rural market to tap.(With Inputs from ANI)