China 5G Adoption Crosses 70 Percent Milestone as Data Demand Surges 17 Percent

China's 5G mobile user base reached 1.32 billion at the end of September, representing 70 percent of the nation's total mobile subscribers, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.

The rapid adoption coincides with sustained infrastructure expansion. China added 416,000 5G base stations since the end of 2025, bringing the total to 5.25 million–now making up 40 percent of all cell sites nationwide. Over the same period, mobile internet data traffic jumped 17 percent year-over-year to 336.2 billion gigabytes.

However, price cuts triggered by intense market rivalry continued to weigh on carrier revenues. Total telecom service revenue fell 2.5 percent year-over-year to ¥1.3 trillion, even as actual business volume grew 7.3 percent.