BEIJING, Oct. 27 -- There were about 4.71 million 5G base stations in China by the end of September, amid the country's efforts to strengthen its cyber infrastructure.

The figure represents a net increase of 455,000 from the end of last year, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China's telecommunication sector maintained steady growth in the first three quarters of the year, with an increasing number of Chinese mobile phone users adopting 5G services.

By the end of last month, the number of 5G mobile phone users among the country's three major telecommunication enterprises and China Broadnet had neared 1.2 billion, per the data.

Over the last five years, China has built the world's largest and most extensive 5G network infrastructure.