BEIJING - More Chinese citizens are relying on their mobile phones as their primary method of communication, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Monday.

China's mobile phone operators added 70.83 million new subscribers in the first seven months of this year, bringing the country's total number of cell phone users to 929.84 million, the MIIT said in a statement on its website.

Fixed-line telecommunication companies, however, lost 4.89 million subscribers during the January-July period.

The total number of third-generation (3G) mobile phone service subscribers expanded to 87.2 million by the end of July, according to the MIIT.

The entire telecommunications industry collected 559.46 billion yuan ($87.6 billion) in business revenues during the January-July period, up 10.1 percent year-on-year, according to the MIIT.