Editing Telecommunications in China (section)

==Recent development==
The former telecoms regulator – the [[Ministry of Information Industry]] (MII) – reported in 2004 that China had 295 million subscribers to main telephone lines and 305 million cellular telephone subscribers, the highest numbers in both categories. Both categories showed substantial increases over the previous decade; in 1995 there were only 3.6 million cellular telephone subscribers and around 20 million main-line telephone subscribers. By 2003 there were 42 telephones per 100 population.

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 society in China|rural China]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Shi |first=Song |title=China and the Internet: Using New Media for Development and Social Change |date=2023 |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |isbn=9781978834736 |location=New Brunswick, NJ}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=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.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=25}} Beginning in late 2009, the program began building rural telecenters each of which had at least one telephone, computer, and internet connectivity.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=37-38}}By 2010, nearly  every administrative village was connected to phone networks.<ref name=":Liu">{{Cite book |last=Liu |first=Lizhi |title=From Click to Boom: The Political Economy of E-Commerce in China |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2024 |isbn=9780691254104}}</ref>{{Rp|page=128}} Approximately 90,000 rural telecenters were built by 2011.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=38}} As of December 2019, 135 million rural households had used broadband internet.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=25}} The program successfully extended internet infrastructure throughout rural China and promoted development of the internet.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=25}}

Internet use 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 is fairly low per capita, it was second in the world and on a par with [[Japan]]'s 57 million users.

By 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%.<ref name="ChinaDaily">{{cite news | url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-07/15/content_10112957.htm | work=[[China Daily]] | title=China Internet population hits 420m | access-date=18 July 2010 | archive-date=19 July 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100719012435/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-07/15/content_10112957.htm | url-status=live }}</ref> (See [[Internet in the People's Republic of China]].)

China's 2.7 million kilometers of [[Fiber-optic cable|optical fiber telecommunication cables]] by 2003 assisted greatly in the [[modernization]] process. China produces an increasing volume of televisions both for domestic use and export, which has helped to spread communications development. In 2001 China produced more than 46 million televisions and claimed 317 million sets in use. At the same time, there were 417 million radios in use in China, a rate of 342 per 1,000 population. However, many more are reached, especially in rural areas, via [[loudspeaker]] broadcasts of [[radio]] programs that bring transmissions to large numbers of radioless households.

98% of China's population was covered by a mobile phone network in 2011.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=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.<ref name=engadgetmar2011>Donald Melanson, 30 March 2012, [https://www.engadget.com/2012/03/30/china-officially-tops-one-billion-mobile-subscribers/ China officially tops one billion mobile subscribers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223045222/https://www.engadget.com/2012/03/30/china-officially-tops-one-billion-mobile-subscribers/ |date=23 February 2020 }}, [[Engadget]]</ref><ref>2012-03-30, [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-03/30/content_14954435.htm China mobile phone users exceed 1 billion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101214345/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-03/30/content_14954435.htm |date=1 January 2017 }}, China Daily</ref><ref>30 March 2012, [https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jhpFZrHwD9qqSZ2pfh9WxJuDwE8A?docId=CNG.df05140bd848fd4930151160f19892b6.501 China's mobile phone subscriptions top a billion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619055145/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jhpFZrHwD9qqSZ2pfh9WxJuDwE8A?docId=CNG.df05140bd848fd4930151160f19892b6.501 |date=19 June 2012 }}, AFP</ref> 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.<ref name=engadgetmar2011/>

As of at least 2023, China is the world's biggest mobile phone market.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Cheng |first=Wenting |title=China in Global Governance of Intellectual Property: Implications for Global Distributive Justice |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2023 |isbn=978-3-031-24369-1 |series=Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies series}}</ref>{{Rp|page=119}}