“Of all the subscribers, 135 million are fixed users and 65 million are mobile users,” Wu Jichuan, minister of Information Industry, told a press conference sponsored by the State Council Information Office today.

At present, both the fixed and mobile telephone networks of China are the second largest in the world in terms of network scale and subscriber base. By September, the national teledensity hit 17.7 percent.

Based on the public network, departments of finance, customs, taxation, trade and others have built 108 national computing systems. On-line projects for the government, businesses and households have been progressing considerably.

China has also built direct circuits with 71 countries and regions and made international mobile roaming possible with 59 countries and regions.

The minister attributes these achievements to the reform and restructuring endeavors made in the telecom sector over the past few years.

“The reform in the past couple of years has resulted in profound changes in the communications management and operational structures and breathed new life into the industry by eradicating monopoly and introducing competition, thus giving a strong push to development,” Wu said.

(CIIC 09/25/2000)