BEIJING -- Shipments of 5G phones in China surged 79.7 percent year-on-year to 168 million units in the first eight months of this year, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed.

The volume accounted for 74.1 percent of the country's total mobile phone shipments during the period, said the CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

According to the data, half of the 296 newly-released mobile phone models during this period were 5G phones.

In August alone, China shipped 17.69 million units of 5G phones, up 9.4 percent year-on-year, the data showed.