BEIJING -- China's telecommunication industry saw steady expansion from January to November, official data showed on Monday.

The combined business revenues of firms in the sector neared 1.61 trillion yuan ($228 billion), which was up 0.9 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China's 5G technology continued its steady expansion. By the end of November, the country had 4.83 million 5G base stations and 1.19 billion 5G mobile users, and 65.3 percent of China's mobile phone users were 5G service subscribers.

Mobile internet access traffic maintained a relatively fast growth rate, and the construction of network infrastructure such as 5G, gigabit optical network and Internet of Things infrastructure was advanced steadily, the ministry said.