BEIJING - More Chinese are disconnecting their fixed-line telephone service and turning to mobile phones, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

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In the first quarter, China's fixed phone users dropped to 292.73 million people, after 1.653 million gave up their fixed-line service, MIIT said in a statement on its web.

Mobile phone subscribers have risen to 890.27 million, with 31.267 million new comers in the first quarter, and about 61.902 million people using 3G service, according to the statement.

The number of broad band Internet users increased by 7.35 million in the first quarter to 133.69 million, while the number of dial-up connection users dropped 107,000 to 5.8 million.

Business revenue of China's mobile communication industry in the first quarter hit 159.17 billion yuan ($24.5 billion), up 13.3 percent on the same period last year.