MIIT: China Finishes 2025 with 1.827 Bln Mobile Subscribers
MIIT, 1/28/26
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released its 2025 full-year national telecom industry statistics, during which China's total number of mobile phone subscribers rose to 1.827 bln, representing a net increase of 37.25 mln since the end of 2024. Among this total, China's number of 5G mobile phone subscribers reached 1.204 bln, comprising 65.9% of China's total mobile phone subscriber base, up 9.2 percentage points from the end of 2024. China's 2025 mobile phone penetration rate reached 130%, up 2.9 percentage points from the end of 2024.
China's total number of fixed-line telephone accounts declined by approximately 6.34 mln in 2025 to approximately 160 mln, for a penetration rate of 11.4%, down 4 percentage points from the end of 2024.
China's total number of cellular IOT connections reached approximately 2.888 bln by the end of 2025, up approximately 232 mln since the end of 2024. As a proportion of total mobile network terminal connections, cellular IOT connections comprised 61.3% of the 2025 full-year total, while mobile phone subscribers comprised the remaining 38.7%.
As of the end of 2025, China's total number of deployed base stations reached 12.87 mln, up by 0.227 mln since the end of 2024. Of this total, 4G base stations comprised 7.192 mln, or 55.9%, and 5G base stations comprised 4.838 mln, or 37.6%. Since the end of 2024, China's total number of deployed 4G and 5G base stations increased by approximately 80,000 and 588,000, respectively, and China's total number of RedCap-enabled 5G base stations reached 2.064 mln, representing 42.7% of China's total deployed 5G base stations.
China's total number of wireline broadband accounts reached 691 mln by the end of 2025, up approximately 20.99 mln since the end of 2024. Among these, accounts providing speeds of 100 Mbps or faster comprised 659 mln, or 95.3%, and accounts providing speeds of 1,000 Mbps or faster comprised 238 mln, or 34.5%, up 22.99 mln and 31.57 mln, respectively, since the end of 2024. China's total number of fiber-to-the-room (FTTR) subscribers reached approximately 59.39 mln by the end of 2025; total rural wireline broadband accounts reached approximately 204 mln, up 4.51 mln since the end of 2024.
China's total number of internet TV (IPTV and OTT) subscribers reached 408 mln by the end of 2025, representing a net increase of approximately 0.591 mln since the end of 2024.
Editor's Note: The MIIT's full-year telecom industry statistics report for any given year typically weeds out inactive accounts and adjusts for any reporting inaccuracies throughout the year, so it is not unusual for the full-year figure in any given category to be lower than the Jan-Nov total reported the month prior.
Keywords: wireless fixed-line subscribers national statistics Internet IPTV broadband penetration rural telecom 4G MIIT mobile subscribers Internet TV 5G cellular IoT base station network construction mobile network equipment
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