Telephone

Telephones - main lines in use: 263 million (2003 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 329 million (2004 Q4) - expected to hit 402 million by end of 2005

Telephone system: domestic and international services are increasingly available for private use; unevenly distributed domestic system serves principal cities, industrial centers, and many towns. In early 2004 China overtook the U.S. as the largest communication country in the world with a combined main lines and mobile lines exceeding 600 million.
domestic: interprovincial fiber-optic trunk lines and cellular telephone systems have been installed; a domestic satellite system with 55 earth stations is in place
international: satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region) and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean regions); several international fiber-optic links to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and Germany (2000)

Operators include:

• China Mobile
• China Netcom
• China Telecom
• China Unicom

Radio

Radio broadcast stations: AM 369, FM 259, shortwave 45 (1998)

Radios: 428 million (2000)

Television

Television broadcast stations: 3,240 (of which 209 are operated by China Central Television, 31 are provincial TV stations and nearly 3,000 are local city stations) (1997)

Televisions: 448 million (2000)

See also: List of Chinese language television channels

Internet

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 3 (2000)

Internet users: 79.5 million (2003)

Country codes: CN

See also :

• Internet in the People's Republic of China
• Internet censorship in China
• Media in China
• Communications in Taiwan
• Communications in Hong Kong
• Communications in Macau