HANOI - Vietnam exported nearly $1.5 billion worth of phones and their components to China in the first quarter of this year, up 4.8 times against the same period last year, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Vietnam earned over $1.4 billion from exporting phones and components to the United States, up 128 percent, and more than $3.5 billion from exporting the products to the European Union, up 47.6 percent.

Altogether, Vietnam reaped $12.6 billion from exporting phones and components to foreign countries between January and March, up 62.3 percent.

In the three-month period, Vietnam spent over $3.3 billion importing phones and components, mainly from China and South Korea, up 13.1 percent, the department said.

By the end of March, Vietnam, with a population of some 95 million, had 126.3 million fixed and mobile phone subscribers, including 118.7 million mobile ones, said the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority.

Vietnam made total telecommunications revenues of 96.4 trillion Vietnamese dong (over $4.2 billion) in the first quarter of this year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.