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China's mobile-phone subscriber base grew 2 per cent in February, returning to its normal expansion rate following a sharp growth spike in January.
According to figures from the Ministry of Information Industry, the nation added 5.5 million subscribers last month, bringing the total to 282.3 million.
January had seen some 8.11 million new subscribers added to the country's mobile phone base, as people splashed out on new and upgraded cellphones during the week-long Chinese New Year celebrations that month.
UBS Warburg analyst Dylan Tinker attributed the return to normal growth levels following January's sales surge to a strong uptick in demand for the domestic Xiaolingtong service.
Xiaolingtong is used by China Telecom and China Netcom to provide a limited but much cheaper local mobile phone service than that offered by mobile operators China Mobile and China Unicom.
But Wallace Cheung, senior research analyst at DBS Vickers Securities, told China Daily that Xiaolingtong's glory days are now long gone.
Cheung noted that it was common for sales growth to slow markedly in the month following the Spring Festival, and said the key issue was to focus on the industry's growth over the coming year.
China's mobile sector, despite strong sales figures, is under pressure from overheating, with supply outstripping demand, creating fears that mobile-phone makers could be forced to slash prices this year as they seek to sell rising numbers of handsets in inventory.
But on the surface everything seems fine.
New mobile subscribers typically number between 4 and 6 million per month. China has more mobile phone users than any other country, and two new users are added to the burgeoning total every second.
Mobile phone makers and carriers remain bullish on China. Handsets remain a luxury item on the mainland but are treated as a necessity, with university graduates and young professionals often spending one or two months' salary on their first mobile phone, or on an upgrade.
Then there is the potential in China's vast hinterland. Despite the mainland's high-and-rising number of mobile users, the penetration rate remains below many of China's regional peers, and it is to people living in smaller cities with lower household incomes that the mobile phone manufacturers and carriers will turn next.
Currently, 20 per cent of mainland Chinese own a cell phone, compared to 35.1 per cent of Thais, 41.6 per cent of Malaysians and 71.4 per cent of South Koreans. Hong Kong has a 90.5 per cent penetration, due to its position as a world financial and communications centre.
China's mobile phone market is dominated by the duopoly of China Mobile and China Unicom. The two companies control two-thirds and one-thirds of China's mobile carrier market respectively.
China Mobile's shares ended yesterday HK$0.40 or 1.78 per cent up, at HK$22.85 (US$2.9), on trade of 25.58 million shares worth HK$581.50 million (US$74.6 million). China Unicom finished the day up HK$0.10 or 1.22 per cent at HK$8.3 (US$1.06), on trade of 12.88 million shares worth HK$105.97 million (US$13.6 million).


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