BEIJING -- Shipments of 5G phones amounted to 266 million units in China last year, continuing to dominate the mobile phone market, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).

The volume surged by 63.5 percent from the previous year, accounting for 75.9 percent of China's total mobile phone shipments in 2021.

China rolled out a total of 227 new 5G models in 2021, up 0.9 percent year-on-year, said CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

In December alone, shipments of 5G phones jumped 49.2 percent year-on-year to 27.15 million units.

China has stepped up its pace of 5G network development over the years, with about 654,000 base stations built across the country in 2021. So far, nearly 1.43 million 5G base stations have been launched, MIIT data showed.