China’s telecommunications sector sustained steady growth in 2025, surpassing development targets for 5G and gigabit optical network infrastructure set in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), official data showed Wednesday.
By the end of 2025, the number of 5G base stations in China reached 4.838 million, equivalent to 34.4 stations per 10,000 people, exceeding the national planning target by 8.4 units, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The sector’s total business volume, calculated at 2024 prices, rose 9.1 percent year on year. Telecom revenue totaled 1.75 trillion yuan (about 250.8 billion U.S. dollars), up 0.7 percent, with emerging businesses such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and data centers contributing 25.7 percent of total revenue.
China accounted for 42 percent of global 5G standard-essential patent declarations and made notable progress in 6G system architecture verification and other key technologies. Infrastructure coverage expanded to every county with gigabit optical access and 5G coverage in all towns and over 95 percent of administrative villages.
By year-end, 5G-Advanced (5G-A) service covered more than 330 cities. The national optical fiber cable network extended 74.99 million kilometers, while the three major telecom operators provided 938,000 data center racks.
Mobile phone subscriptions reached 1.827 billion, including 1.204 billion 5G users. Mobile IoT terminal users increased 8.7 percent to 2.888 billion, with strong growth in Internet of Vehicles and public service applications.
The ministry highlighted deeper integration of digital technologies with the real economy. 5G and gigabit networks were applied across 91 major economic categories, while the industrial internet now covers all 41 industrial sectors.
