BEIJING — China's telecommunications sector posted steady expansion in the first two months of the year, with emerging businesses such as big data and cloud computing logging rapid growth, official data showed.

The combined industrial revenue rose 9 percent year-on-year to 258.6 billion yuan (about $40.72 billion), a pace 3.2 percentage points faster than the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Emerging businesses, such as big data, cloud computing, internet data centers and internet of things, registered rapid expansion. The emerging business revenue of China's three telecom giants — China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, surged 34.1 percent year-on-year to 50.8 billion yuan.

In breakdown, the revenue for cloud computing services soared 124.6 percent year-on-year, while that for big data and internet of things surged 58 percent and 21.9 percent, respectively.

Steady progress was also made in the construction of 5G base stations. By the end of February, China's 5G base stations topped 1.5 million in number, with 81,000 built in the first two months of the year.