In 1999, the telecommunication department of the province invested 24.5 billion yuan in fixed assets with a total of 12.2 billion yuan put into business operation. With an increase of 4,288 new wires, the number of Jilin’s long-distance cables has reached 60,179 wire lines. Its switchboards increased 280,000, expanding the handling capacity in the province to 4.23 million switchboards. In some cities and counties, the transmission network has been improved with application of wave-division duplicating technology. The transmission optical cables, totaling 240,000 km, have reached almost all the townships and major villages. More projects in this area are underway and the construction of the second control center of the telecommunication bureau in Changchun is entering its preliminary preparation stage. In the year, 559,400 telephones were installed, which fulfilled 139.8 percent of the annual target, making the total number of telephone users reach 2.976 million, including 304,700 new urban users, fulfilling 121.8 percent of the planned target to reach the total number of 2.23 million. The number of increased rural users of the year was 255,000, fulfilling 169.8 percent of the planned target, making the total number of rural users to reach 745,000. A total of 5,905 sets of IC public telephone have been developed, fulfilling 118.1 percent of the planned target of the year. In the year, the number of new users of digital and multimedia communication was 34,300, fulfilling 137.2 percent of the planned target. The total value of the province’s telecommunication business was 2.93 billion yuan, 11 percent higher than that of 1998. The business income was 3.16 billion yuan, 18.4 percent higher than that of 1998. The labor productivity value of the telecommunication industry in the province was 183,000 yuan per person..

Telephones:

By the end of 2000, the number of household telephones reached 3.94 million and the number of mobile phones was 2.03 million. The ratio of telephone users was 22.6 sets per 100 persons. The ratio of trunk line set telephone users was 13.6 lines per 100 persons, and that of mobile phone, 7.7 sets per 100 persons. Both figures reached or surpassed the national average. The number of digital communication users reached 11,000 and the number of Internet users reached 270,000.

Broadcast and television stations:

By the end of 2000, there were 10 radio stations and 31 relay stations in the province, which broadcast 255 sets of programs, with a total daytime broadcasting time of 554 hours and 23 minutes. There were 10 TV stations, producing 46 sets of programs, with 279 transmitting and relay stations, working 2,659 hours and 37 minutes a week. There were 10 cable TV stations and 41 county-level radio and TV stations with 1.9688 million household receivers. The coverage of broadcast and TV was 94.78 percent and 95.72 percent of the province’s total population respectively. Now, every administrative village can receive the broadcast and TV programs and the total length of cable TV network is 26,903 km. The province has 3,242 satellite earth receiving stations and 81 microwave stations with a total length of microwave line of 3,086 km. Each of the provincial broadcast station and TV station has a set of programs relayed through the satellite. The radio programs now can be produced through the sound frequency station. The making of TV programs is now undergoing a transformation from the method of simulation composition to simulation quantity division.