The number of 5G mobile subscribers in China exceeded one billion at the end of November, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday.
In total, there are 1.002 billion 5G mobile subscribers in the country, accounting for 56 percent of the total number of mobile users, who are customers of China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, and China Broadnet. This marks a 9.4 percentage point increase in the share of 5G subscribers compared to the end of last year.
China's total number of mobile subscribers stood at 1.79 billion at the end of November, representing a net increase of 46.82 million from the end of the previous year, according to the MIIT.
As the country has made significant strides in advancing its network infrastructure - deploying 5G stations, gigabit optical networks, and the Internet of Things (IoT) - the number of connected users has grown, and mobile network data traffic has surged.
By the end of November, the total number of 5G base stations across China reached 4.191 million, up by 815,000 compared to the end of the prior year, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the number of internet broadband access ports rose to 1.2 billion, marking a net increase of 63.6 million from the end of the previous year.
Data also indicated steady growth in cumulative revenue from the telecommunications sector. In the first 11 months of the year, the revenue reached 1.59 trillion yuan (about 217.83 billion U.S. dollars), reflecting a 2.6-percent year-on-year increase. When adjusted for last year's prices, the telecom revenue grew by 10 percent.
China's 5G mobile subscribers exceed 1 billion
Axis powers during World War II should offer sincere reflection and apology, a Greek mayor said after Greece successfully repatriated a rare collection of 262 World War II-era photographs.
Greek officials traveled to Belgium to negotiate with the seller and brought the photographs back to Greece, after they were put up for sale online by a Belgian collector, said the Greek Culture Ministry.
The images were taken by Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who served in Greece from 1943 to 1944, during World War II, and part of the collection documents the mass execution of Greek communists by Nazi troops in Kaisariani, east of Athens.
During World War II, German occupation in Greece met with fierce resistance. On May 1, 1944, German forces executed 200 Greeks at the Kaisariani firing range in retaliation for the killing of a German general by resistance fighters.
A memorial and a museum were set up after the war in Kaisariani to commemorate those who died in the mass execution.
"The photos really shocked us all because they were real documents from the day of the execution. We are shocked for many reasons. An important reason is that the 200 communists were singing with their heads held high before the execution in the photos, and they were not mourning because they were fighters," said Ilias Stamelos, mayor of Kaisariani.
The newly recovered photographs have drawn renewed attention to the historical trauma still felt in the community, as the images provide a direct visual record of the final moments of those executed.
In 1987, then German President Richard von Weizsaecker visited Greece and made a special stop in Kaisariani, reflecting on the profound suffering inflicted on the Greek people by Germany during World War II.
Ilias said that, like Germany, Japan, another Axis power during the war, should also be held accountable for the massive harm it caused to multiple countries and should offer sincere reflection and apology for its wartime aggression.
"And I think it's a common demand, because those responsible for the deaths in the World War II need to pay for what happened. It's known to all that back then it was Germany, Japan and Italy, the allies in this war, that each played different roles in the war, yet they do have common responsibilities," said the mayor.
Historic photos of Nazi mass execution of Greeks returned to Greece, mayor calls for historical accountability
