CHINA'S top two mobile carriers increased their 3G subscriber base in November compared with the previous months, thanks to smartphone use by consumers.

China Mobile, the country's biggest mobile carriers, yesterday reported it gained 2.68 million new 3G users in November, up 24 percent from October.

China Unicom, the telco partner of Apple for the iPhone in the Chinese mainland, yesterday said it attracted 3.38 million 3G users last month, or a 67 percent jump from the new 3G user base in August. The increase helped the country's No. 2 telco surpass for the first time three million lines.

"The 3G is our key strategy and we will continue to focus on it," said Cai Quangen, China Unicom's Shanghai branch general manager said in a recent interview. Shanghai Unicom's 3G user base will grow fivefolds to 7 million by 2014, according to Cai.

By the end of November, China Mobile had 48 million 3G users to China Unicom's 36 million.

China beats the United States to become the world's No. 1 smartphone market in the third quarter, industry insiders said.

In the third quarter 23.9 million smartphones, or up 58 percent annually, were sold in China. Smartphone sales in the US totaled 23.3 million units, a slight fall from the same period a year ago, said research firm Strategy Analytics.