BEIJING — China's telecommunications industry registered rapid growth in business revenue last year amid the country's efforts to accelerate the application of new information technology (IT) infrastructure such as 5G network.

The combined business revenue in the telecom sector rose 8 percent year-on-year to 1.47 trillion yuan (about $232.43 billion) in 2021, with the growth rate up 4.1 percentage points from 2020, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"New digital services for enterprises such as cloud computing, big data and data centers have emerged as the biggest force driving the increase in business revenue of this sector," the ministry said.

Revenue from these digital services in 2021 jumped 27.8 percent from a year ago and contributed to some 44.5 percent of the telecom industry's revenue growth.

Telecom companies' revenue from fixed-line, data and internet business maintained stable growth in 2021, accounting for 61.5 percent of the total.

The stellar performance of the telecom sector came amid the fast development of China's 5G and gigabit optic fiber networks.

By the end of 2021, China has built and put into operation about 1.43 million 5G base stations, accounting for over 60 percent of the world's total and constituting the largest 5G network globally.

More than 300 cities in China have started construction of gigabit optic fiber networks, with investment in internet broadband access surging 40 percent in 2021 over the previous year, the ministry said.