China registered 670 million cell phone users by the end of March, with the boost of the third-generation (3G) networks, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Monday.

Before 3G services were started, China had 600 million cell phone users at the end of last July, according to MIIT data. Users grew monthly by 7.42 million. After 3G started on Jan. 7, 10 million people became registered cell phone users in February and March, said Xi Guohua, minister of MIIT.

3G allows mobile phone users to download data faster, make video calls and watch TV shows.

With another 335 million fixed-line users in calculation, China's telephone users exceeded one billion, Xi added.

Despite those numbers, the telecom industry saw net profits sink 18.7 percent to 37.65 billion yuan (5.54 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months of this year. Business revenue rose 1.86 percent year on year to 202.42 billion yuan and telecom fees fell 6.76 percent in March from a year ago, Xi said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2009)