Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – There were 376 million active mobile phones in China at the end of September, according to government media. The number is expected to increase to 380 million before the year is out, to 520 million by 2008 and to 600 million in 2010. In 2004, there were 25.7 mobile phones per 100 Chinese, according to information released by the China Mobile Telecommunications Terminal Development Forum. The entire mobile phone sector is expanding, with an annual turnover of sales and services estimated at 250 billion yuan (around 30 billion US dollars) with a 20% increase in a year.

Since the beginning of the year, 100 million mobile phones were sold, 30% more than last year. It is held that the mobile phone market will contribute 500 billion yuan to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2005, between 8 and 10% of the total. Experts say that with a population of more than 1.3 billion (to say nothing of foreign enterprises and companies) the sector is expanding rapidly, especially in small and medium-sized cities and in rural areas. Mobile phones are used to send messages too; they come in handy to spread news, get around government censorship and also to commit fraud, sell illegal merchandise and drugs, distribute pornographic material and even to search for one's husband.

In 2004, 217.76 billion text messages were sent. Last February, more than 11 billion were sent in one night to send greetings for the Chinese New Year. The Public Security ministry intends to launch a "national campaign to eliminate illegal messages from mobile phones". The term "illegal" includes "sex", "astrology", and political and democracy issues. For a good part of the population, SMS have become a sort of parallel information network.