China’s mobile connections grew 2.5 per cent year-on-year to nearly 1.3 billion at the end of July, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Growth in China, the largest mobile market in the world, with 37 per cent more connections than second-placed India (941 million), has slowed over the past two years as the market nears saturation.

MIIT said the country’s mobile penetration rate was 94.5 per cent, while GSMA Intelligence said its SIM penetration was 92 per cent at the end of last year.

A third, or 444 million connections, were 3G users, while 19 per cent, or 250.5 million, were 4G users. The country’s three mobile operators added 139 million 4G connections in the first half of this year. China Mobile recently reported that its 4G user base hit 209 million by end-July, almost on a par with its 3G base.

Mobile users sent 57.7 billion text messages in July, or 1.44 messages per phone number a day, DigiTimes reported.

The country has 240.1 million fixed-line connections, which represented a penetration rate of just 17.7 per cent.