China's telecom industry saw rising business volume and profit in the first three quarters of this year as telephone and Internet users increased steadily, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Wednesday.

The fundamentals of China's telecom industry was sound with profit jumping 10.3 percent year-on-year in the first nine months, said Zhu Jun, deputy director of the department of telecommunications development of the MIIT. He did not disclose the exact figure of profit.

The nation's telephone users climbed to 977 million by the end of September, the world's largest, according to the figure released by the ministry. Subscribers jumped by 64.25 million in the January-September period.

Up to 12.93 million broadband Internet users were added during the same period, pushing up the total to 79.35 million, the most in the world.

Internet service has expanded to every township excluding those in Tibet, Gansu and Qinghai, according to the ministry.

Zhu said restructuring in the telecom sector was progressing smoothly, and the MIIT would issue 3G licenses after the restructuring was finished.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2008)