BEIJING, Dec. 23 -- China's telecommunication industry logged steady growth in the first 11 months of 2023, driven by emerging businesses, official data showed.

The combined business revenue of firms in the sector totaled 1.55 trillion yuan (about 218 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-November period, rising 6.9 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

During this period, emerging sectors such as big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things continued to post strong performances.

China's three telecom giants -- China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom -- saw their revenue from emerging businesses jump 20.1 percent year on year to 332.6 billion yuan, driving up the telecom sector's total revenue by 3.8 percentage points.

Specifically, revenue from cloud computing and big data surged 39.7 percent and 43.3 percent, respectively, compared with the same period a year earlier.

Broadband internet services generated 240.4 billion yuan for China's three major telecom companies from January to November, up 8.5 percent year on year, the data revealed.