Shipment of 5G smartphones in China rose 63.5 percent to 266 million last year as falling prices boosted demand, the China Academy of Information and Communications (CAICT) announced via WeChat.

5G smartphone shipments accounted for 75.9 percent of domestic shipments, higher than a global average of 40.7 percent.

CAICT said buying of 5G smartphones had been encouraged by the price of such handsets falling below 1,000 yuan ($157.69).

By the end of November 2021, the total number of smartphone subscribers of China’s top three telecom operators reached 1.64 billion, of which 497 million were connected to 5G smartphones, up 298 million from a year earlier, the CAICT said.

China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom are the country’s top three telecom firms. China Mobile is the world’s #1 telecom operator in terms of number of subscribers on its 5G network.

Leading smartphone makers in China include Vivo, Oppo, Honor, Xiaomi, Apple, among others.