China - Communications

Geography - People - Economy - Government - Communications - Transportation - Military - Transnational Issues

China is located Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam. The climate is extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north. The terrain is mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east.

Telephones

Telephones - main lines in use : 365.4 million (2007)
Telephones - mobile cellular : 547.286 million (2007)

Telephone system

This entry includes a brief general assessment of the system with details on the domestic and international components. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry
Telephone system - general assessment : domestic and international services are increasingly available for private use; unevenly distributed domestic system serves principal cities, industrial centers, and many towns; nonetheless, by the end of 2006, more than 95% of China's villages had been connected to the telephone network; 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 fiber optic submarine cable system directly linking the US mainland and China
Telephone system - domestic : interprovincial fiber-optic trunk lines and cellular telephone systems have been installed; mobile-cellular subscribership is increasing rapidly; the number of Internet users reached 253 million in 2008; a domestic satellite system with 55 earth stations is in place
Telephone system - international : country code - 86; a number of submarine cables provide connectivity to Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the US; satellite earth stations - 7 (5 Intelsat - 4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean; 1 Intersputnik - Indian Ocean region; and 1 Inmarsat - Pacific and Indian Ocean regions) (2007)

Radio broadcast stations

This entry includes the total number of AM, FM, and shortwave broadcast stations.
Radio broadcast stations : AM 369, FM 259, shortwave 45 (1998)

Radios

Radios : 417 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations

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

Televisions : 400 million (1997)

Internet country code

This entry includes the two-letter codes maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the ISO 3166 Alpha-2 list and used by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to establish country-coded top-level domains (ccTLDs).
Internet country code : .cn

Internet hosts

This entry lists the number of Internet hosts available within a country. An Internet host is a computer connected directly to the Internet; normally an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) computer is a host. Internet users may use either a hard-wired terminal, at an institution with a mainframe computer connected directly to the Internet, or may connect remotely by way of a modem via telephone line, cable, or satellite to the Internet Service Provider's host computer. The number of hosts is one indicator of the extent of Internet connectivity.
Internet hosts : 14.306 million (2008)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) : 3 (2000)

Internet users

This entry gives the number of users within a country that access the Internet. Statistics vary from country to country and may include users who access the Internet at least several times a week to those who access it only once within a period of several months.
Internet users : 253 million (2008)

More Information about the country

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