[China's number of cell phone users to surpass number of fixed-line users this year with an expected increase of 25% to 258 million users.]

"Some time in April, we expect to see the number of cellular phone users in China exceeding fixed-line phones," Qian told Chinese executives at an industry conference in Beijing.

China Mobile Communications Corp., the world's biggest mobile phone company by users, and cellular rival China United Telecommunications Corp. are reaping the biggest benefits from a decade of economic growth in the world's most populous country. As the Chinese become more affluent, they are discarding traditional fixed-line phones for cellular handsets that can do everything from making phone calls to surfing the Internet and sending digital photographs and short messages."

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