China's mobile-phone users at the end of April rose to 583.5 million, up by 8.9 million from end-March, data issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information showed.

 The growth in the number of mobile users slowed in April compared with the net additions of 9.4 million in March, according to statistics issued on the ministry's Web site Wednesday.

China's mobile-phone users grew by a record 9.5 million in February, the statistics showed.

The mobile-phone users are customers of the two state-owned mobile service providers, China Mobile Communications Corp. and China United Telecommunications Corp.

China Mobile Communications Corp. is the parent company of Hong Kong-listed China Mobile and the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers. China United Telecommunications Corp. is the parent of Hong Kong- and Shanghai-listed China Unicom.

Fixed-line users totaled 360 million by the end of April, down 5.4 million from end-2007, the data showed.