Chinese Telephone Users Ranking World's Second

China's telecommunication has witnessed rapid development since the birth of New China. China has established the world's second largest stereoscopic communication network across China and connected to the whole globe, the number of telephone users has jumped to the second rank in the world. Presently, every six, instead of the previous 2,000, persons have one telephone.

In 1882, Shanghai opened the first magnet telephone exchange board of the old China. In the following 60 years, there was no integrated post and telecommunication network, and telephone could only be enjoyed by those relatives of emperors, high officials or rich people. By 1949, 90 percent of the counties had no telecom equipment; open wires of telecom were only 76,000 pole/km in length, the city telephone exchange board capacity was about 310,000 telephones and the popularization rate of telephone was only 0.05 percent.

After its establishment, the People's Republic of China built the Beijing-centered communication network which radiated to all Chinese big cities during the "First Five-year Plan" period. Later, China's telecom industry zigzagged its way forward. By 1979, there were 2.03 million telephone users in China. In 1984, Chinese telecomm industry began to develop at a rate higher than that of the national economy. The population of telephone users exceeded 10 million in 1992 and 0.1 billion in 1998. By last September, the population had reached 0.2 billion; with the popularization rate of telephone reached 17.7 percent; that of urban fixed telephone 38 percent and that of mobile phones 5.1 percent.

Besides, the Internet, which entered China in the early 1990s, is developing rapidly at an annual growth rate of 150 percent to 200 percent. By he end of June this year, there had been more than 6.5 million computers connected with the Internet and 16.9 million Internet users.

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