BEIJING -- China's cell phone user grew by 41.39 million in the first four months of 2011 to 900.39 million in total, covering nearly two-thirds of the nation's population, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

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The number of telephone subscribers exceeded 1.19 billion by the end of April, with the number of fixed-line subscribers dropping by 2.93 million to 291.45 million, according to statistics released Tuesday by the MIIT on its website.

By the end of April, third generation (3G) mobile telecommunication users in China reached 67.57 million, 20.52 million more than that of the end of 2010.

The number of broadband Internet users increased by 9.58 million in the January-April period to 135.92 million, while the number of dial-up connection users dropped by 130,000 to 5.77 million.

China's telecommunication industry reported a 9.4 percent growth year-on-year in main business revenue for the first four months to 308.36 billion yuan ($47.44 billion), said the MIIT.