BEIJING - China's telecommunications industry registered faster growth of revenue in the first quarter (Q1) of the year, official data shows.

The combined industrial revenue rose 6.5 percent year-on-year to 360.1 billion yuan ($55.46 billion) in Q1, up 4.7 percentage points from the growth in Q1 last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

By the end of March, China's three telecom giants -- China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom -- had 1.6 billion mobile phone users, with the number of 5G subscribers reaching 285 million, the ministry said.

The three telecom companies also saw a steady increase in the number of fixed broadband internet users by the end of March, with subscribers rising to 497 million, a net increase of 13.71 million from the end of last year.