Telecommunications in China
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When the People's Republic was founded in 1949, the telecommunication systems and facilities in China first established by the
Communications in China were established rapidly in the early 1950s. By 1952 the principal telecommunications network centered on
In addition, conference telephone service was initiated, radio communications were improved, and the production of telecommunications equipment was accelerated. Growth in telecommunications halted with the general economic collapse after the Great Leap Forward (1958–60) but revived in the 1960s after the telephone network was expanded and improved equipment was introduced, including imports of Western plants and equipment.[citation needed]
In the years immediately following 1949, telecommunications — by
Telecommunications networks expanded significantly as a result of the Third Front campaign to develop basic industry in national defense industry in China's rugged interior in case of invasion by the Soviet Union or the United States.[1]: 4, 219 Production of radios within the Third Front regions rose by 11,668%.[1]: 219
An important component of the
By 1987, China possessed a diversified telecommunications system that linked all parts of the country by telephone, telegraph, radio, and television. None of the telecommunications forms were as prevalent or as advanced as those in modern
Overall, China's telecommunications services improved enormously during the 1980s, and, the pace of telecommunications growth and technology upgrading increased even more rapidly after 1990, especially as fiber-optic systems and digital technology were installed. After 1997, China's telecommunications services were enhanced further with the acquisition of Hong Kong's highly advanced systems. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, foreign investment in the country's telecommunications sector further encouraged growth. Notable has been the tremendous increase in Internet and cellular phone usage. China became the world leader in the early 21st century, in terms of number of cell phone subscribers. The nation ranks first in the world in numbers of both mobile and fixed-line telephones, and first in the number of internet users.[citation needed]
China is the largest user of largest Voice calling over the Internet or Voice over Internet Protocol (
History of telecommunications services
In 1987 the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (now the
As of 1987 the quality of telecommunications services in China had improved markedly over earlier years. A considerable influx of foreign technology and increased domestic production capabilities had a major impact in the post-Mao period.
The primary form of telecommunications in the 1980s was local and long-distance telephone service administered by six regional bureaus:
The large, continuously upgraded satellite ground stations, originally installed in 1972 to provide live coverage of the visits to China by U.S. president
In April 1984 China launched an experimental
satellite over the Indian Ocean.Telegraph development received lower priority than the telephone network largely because of the difficulties involved in transmitting the
Apart from traditional telegraph and telephone services, China also had facsimile, low-speed data-transmission, and computer-controlled telecommunications services. These included on-line information retrieval terminals in Beijing, Changsha, and Baotou that enabled international telecommunications networks to retrieve news and scientific, technical, economic, and cultural information from international sources.
High-speed newspaper-page-facsimile equipment and
The Central People's Broadcasting Station controlled China's national radio network. Programming was administered by the provincial-level units. The station produced general news and cultural and educational programs. It also provided programs directed toward
The nationwide network of wire lines and loudspeakers transmitted radio programs into virtually all rural communities and many urban areas. By 1984 there were over 2,600 wired broadcasting stations, extending radio transmissions to rural areas outside the range of regular broadcasting stations.
In 1987 China Central Television (CCTV), the state network, managed China's television programs. In 1985 consumers purchased 15 million new sets, including approximately 4 million color sets. Production fell far short of demand. Because Chinese viewers often gathered in large groups to watch publicly owned sets, authorities estimated that two-thirds of the nation had access to television. In 1987 there were about 70 million television sets, an average of 29 sets per 100 families. CCTV had four channels that supplied programs to the over ninety television stations throughout the country. Construction began on a major new CCTV studio in Beijing in 1985. CCTV produced its own programs, a large portion of which were educational, and the Television University in Beijing produced three educational programs weekly. The English-language lesson was the most popular program and had an estimated 5 to 6 million viewers. Other programs included daily news, entertainment, teleplays, and special programs. Foreign programs included films and cartoons. Chinese viewers were particularly interested in watching international news, sports, and drama (see Culture of the People's Republic of China).
Recent development
The former telecoms regulator – the
In 2004, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began the Connecting Every Village Project to promote universal access to telecommunication and internet services in rural China.[3]: 24–25 The MIIT required that six state-owned companies, including the main telecommunications and internet providers China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, build the communications infrastructure and assist in financing the project.[3]: 25 Beginning in late 2009, the program began building rural telecenters each of which had at least one telephone, computer, and internet connectivity.[3]: 37–38 Approximately 90,000 rural telecenters were built by 2011.[3]: 38 As of December 2019, 135 million rural households had used broadband internet.[3]: 25 The program successfully extended internet infrastructure throughout rural China and promoted development of the internet.[3]: 25
Internet use also has soared in China from about 60,000 Internet users in 1995 to 22.5 million users in 2000; by 2005 the number had reached 103 million. Although this figure is well below the 159 million users in the United States and although fairly low per capita, it was second in the world and on a par with Japan’s 57 million users.
By the June 2010, China had 420 million internet users. Incidentally, this is greater than the population of the US, however penetration rate is still relatively low at just under 32%.
China's 2.7 million kilometers of
98% of China's population was covered by a mobile phone network in 2011.[3]: 148 In March 2012, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that China has 1.01 billion mobile phone subscribers; of these, 144 million are connected to 3G networks.[5][6][7] At the same time, the number of landline phones dropped by 828,000 within the span of two months to a total of 284.3 million.[5]
As of at least 2023, China is the world's biggest mobile phone market.[8]: 119
Regulation
The primary regulator of communications, in particular
Since 2014, the Cyberspace Administration of China is responsible for setting policy and the regulatory framework for user content generated in online social activities on Internet portals.
Sectors
Telephone
- Telephones – main lines in use: 284.3 million (March 2012)[5]
- Telephones – mobile cellular subscribers: 1.01 billion (March 2012)[5]
- Telephone country code: 86 (see Telephone numbers in China)
China imported its first mobile phone telecommunication facilities in 1987 and it took a decade for the number of subscribers to reach 10 million. Four years later, in 2001, the country had the largest number of mobile phone subscribers in the world.
Domestic and international services are increasingly available for private use. But an unevenly distributed domestic system serves principal cities, industrial centers, and many towns. China continues to develop its telecommunications infrastructure, and is partnering with foreign providers to expand its global reach; 3 of China's 6 major telecommunications operators are part of an international consortium which, in December 2006, signed an agreement with Verizon Business to build the first next-generation optical cable system directly linking the United States and China.
In December 2005, its combined main lines and mobile lines exceeded 743 million.
By the end of August 2006, statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry showed that there were more than 437 million mobile phone users in the Chinese mainland, or 327 mobile phones per 1,000 population.[9]
From January to August 2006, mobile phone users on the mainland sent 273.67 million
Domestic interprovincial fiber-optic trunk lines and cellular telephone systems have been installed.[11]
A domestic satellite system with 55 earth stations was[when?] in place.[citation needed]
International satellite earth stations include 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 include those to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and Germany.[citation needed]
Fixed and mobile operators in China include
.Radio
- Radio broadcast stations: AM 369, FM 259, shortwave 45 (1998)
- Radios: 428 million [33 per 100 persons] (2000)
Television
- Television companies: 358 (2008)
- 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: 493.90 million [38 per 100 persons] (2016)
Internet
- Internet country code: .cn
- Internet hosts: 13.57 million (2008)
- Internet service providers (ISP): 3 (2000)
- Internet users: 513 million (December 2011)[4]
- Broadband Internet users: 363.81 million (June 2010)
- Personal computers: 52,990,000 units [4 per 100 persons] (2004)
- Hosting 29% of the globally installed bandwidth capacity in 2014 (see Figure)
In 2014 only 3 countries (China, US, Japan) host 50% of the globally installed telecommunication bandwidth potential. China replaced the U.S. in its global leadership in terms of installed bandwidth in 2011. By 2014, China hosts more than twice as much national bandwidth potential than the U.S., the historical leader in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth (29% versus 13% of the global total) (see pie charts).[12]
China's number of Internet users or
As of 2004, the largest concentration of Internet users were from Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong and Hubei provinces. Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin also had a high concentration of Internet users, with 28% of Beijing's population having access to the Internet.
As of 31 December 2005, there were an estimated 37,504,000 broadband lines in China.
According to the
As of 2007,
There exists a wide gap between Internet use in cities and rural areas, as statistics show. The national average internet penetration rate is still just 31.8% (June 2010). At the end of June 2007 there were 37.41 million netizens in the rural areas, making up only 5.1 percent of the rural population and around 125 million netizens living in the urban areas, making up 21.6 percent of the urban population, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).[16] The CNNIC survey showed 82.3 per cent of people using the Internet in China were below 35 years old and almost 40 per cent of the netizens were aged 18 to 24. QQ is the most popular form of instant messaging on the Internet in China.
By 2021, China was planning to field a
Mobile phone web users
The affordability of mobile phones and internet data in China has resulted in the number of mobile internet users in China surpassing the number of computer internet users.[22]: 178
Trans-Pacific Express
The Trans-Pacific Express is a telecommunications project to connect the United States with China with a fiber-optic cable that is designed to meet increasing internet traffic between the regions, with 60 times more capacity than existing cables.[23] It is to be the first undersea or submarine telecommunications cable that directly links the US with China and the first independent trans-Pacific connection. Current cable links between China and the US run through Japan.[24]
The project includes US
Earthquake hotspots have been avoided in the planned route of the cable to avoid potential disruption to internet and telephone networks in Asia. The cable will extend more than 18,000 km and will cost about $500m. It will terminate in Nedonna Beach, Oregon with connections to Taiwan and South Korea. When complete, the new cable will be able to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls, with the design capacity to support future internet growth and advanced applications such as video and e-commerce.[26]
See also
- Internationalized domain name (IDN.IDN) for non-ASCII characters
- Chinese telegraph code
- Digital divide in China
- CERNET (China Education and Research Network)
- Media in China and its history
- Electronics industry in China
- Postal system in China
- China Software Industry Association
- Mobile phone industry in China
- EUChinaGRID
- Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
- List of telephone operating companies
References
- ^ S2CID 218936313.
- ^ "Interfax-China". Archived from the original on 23 November 2007. Retrieved 17 December 2007.
- ^ ISBN 9781978834736.
- ^ a b "China Internet population hits 420m". China Daily. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
- ^ a b c d Donald Melanson, 30 March 2012, China officially tops one billion mobile subscribers, Engadget
- ^ 2012-03-30, China mobile phone users exceed 1 billion, China Daily
- ^ 30 March 2012, China's mobile phone subscriptions top a billion Archived 19 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine, AFP
- ISBN 978-3-031-24369-1.
- ^ "Chinadaily – English".
- ^ "Xinhua – English". Archived from the original on 7 October 2012.
- ^ Hays, Jeffrey. "COMMUNICATIONS IN CHINA | Facts and Details". factsanddetails.com. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
- ^ doi:10.1016/j.telpol.2016.01.006; free access to the article http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2jp4w5rq
- ^ Internet users to log in at world No.1
- ^ "Pretty Graphs on Chinese Internet User Demographics". east-west-connect.com. January 2012. Archived from the original on 20 January 2012.
- ^ "Register for free information from Point-Topic" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 April 2006.
- ^ "Internet spreading in China's rural areas".
- ^ Jones, Andrew (27 July 2021). "Chinese rocket company Space Pioneer secures major funding ahead of first launch". SpaceNews. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ "Successful launch continues deployment of SpaceX's Starlink network". Spaceflight Now. 11 November 2019. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ Wattles, Jackie (6 February 2020). "The race for space-based broadband: OneWeb launches 34 more internet satellites". cnn.com. CNN. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
- ^ Henry, Caleb (21 March 2020). "Soyuz launches 34 OneWeb satellites". spacenews.com. SpaceNews. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
- ^ "Elon Musk's company SpaceX applies to offer high-speed Internet service to Canadians". CBC News. 19 June 2020. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- OCLC 1353290533.
- ^ "Report: China starts work on first direct undersea cable to US".
- ^ Trans-Pacific Express deal signed for US-China cable Archived 6 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine 19 December 2006
- ^ Trans-Pacific Express cable ready in 2008 Archived 15 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine 1 June 2006
- ^ Carriers Plan New Terabit Capacity Trans-Pacific Express Optical Cable Archived 27 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. China: A Country Study. Federal Research Division.
External links
- Ministry of Information Industry Archived 6 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine at gov.cn
- China Academy of Telecommunications Research Archived 28 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- China Statistical Information Net