China Mobile: 607b text messages sent in 2008

China Mobile subscribers sent 607.1 billion text messages in 2008, up more than 100 billion over the operator's 2007 SMS totals.

According to China Mobile, its subscriber count is now closing in on the 464 million mark - in all, China boasts about 650 million mobile subscribers nationwide.

In addition, China Mobile customers purchased 76 million full-track music downloads in 2008, while another 41.5 million paid for mobile newspaper content, up a third over 2007 totals - the carrier now offers 110 different news periodicals.

Adoption of China Mobile's Fetion IM service doubled from year to year, with 147 million users in 2008.