BEIJING, June 22 -- China's telecommunication industry logged steady expansion in the first five months of this year, buoyed by emerging businesses, official data showed.

The combined business revenue of firms in the sector totaled 712.5 billion yuan (about 99.24 billion U.S. dollars), up 6.8 percent year on year, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Of the total, emerging sectors such as internet data centers, big data, cloud computing and the Internet of Things saw their revenues rise 20.2 percent year on year, enabling the telecom business revenue to increase by 3.8 percentage points, the ministry said.

The data also revealed the spread of 5G services. The country had 2.84 million 5G base stations by the end of May, and secured a net increase of 90.73 million 5G cellphone users in the first five months of 2023.