The number of China's third generation (3G) mobile telecommunication users soared to 47.05 million by the end of last year, the Beijing News reported.

Approximately, 36.83 million 3G users were new subscribers in 2010.

Among the three major mobile operators in the country, China Mobile, which is now the largest mobile carrier in the world, saw the largest increase from over 3.4 million reaching 20.7 million by last year.

In the same year, China Unicom's new 3G users increased by over 11 million while China Telecom added 8.2 million to its total.

Earlier November, 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said that China aimed to have 150 million 3G mobile users by 2011, while investment in 3G development would hit 400 billion yuan.

China's telecommunication industry reported 744.8 billion yuan ($109.53 billion) in revenues during the first ten months of 2010, up 6.6 percent year on year, according to figures released by the MIIT.

China issued third generation, or 3G, telecom service licenses in Beijing on January 7, 2009.

(CRIENGLISH.com January 23, 2011)