Long abstract

About Statistics Publications & Documents Information by topic

The Chinese telecommunications market has experienced double-digit growth in recent years and continues to expand rapidly as demand surges. As of 2000, China was ranked second in the world, after the United States, in terms of its absolute market size in the telecommunication service sector, with 145 million fixed lines and 85 million mobile subscribers, respectively. However, as of September 2002,China became the world's largest telecommunication service market with 397 million combined subscribers in fixed line and mobile telephony, that is, 207 million and 190 million, respectively. In that time span, the number of mobile telecommunication service subscribers increased 123.5% and fixed line telephony subscribers also increased by 43.7%. With 22 million wireless pager services subscribers in September 2002, though a big drop from 49 million at its peak in 2000, China still has the largest wireless pager market in the world and its IP telephony service market is growing at a particularly rapid pace. More importantly, although still in its infancy stage, limited competition was introduced in the telecommunications service sectors, including fixed-line service.