BEIJING - China's telecommunications industry registered steady expansion in the first quarter of 2024, official data showed.

The combined business revenue of firms in this sector totaled 443.7 billion yuan (about $62.44 billion) in the period, rising 4.5 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Combined revenue of emerging businesses, such as big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, logged double-digit growth

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Combined revenue of emerging businesses, such as big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, logged double-digit growth.

China's three telecoms giants -- China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom -- saw their revenue from emerging businesses increase by 12.2 percent year-on-year, driving up the telecoms sector's total revenue by 3 percentage points.

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Specifically, revenue from cloud computing and big data jumped 17.4 percent and 37.3 percent, respectively, compared with the same period last year.