The People's Republic of China possesses a diversified communications system that links all parts of the country by Internet, telephone, telegraph, radio, and television. The country is served by an extensive system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available, expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to foreign countries. Fiber to the x infrastructure has been expanded rapidly in recent years.
History
Telegraphy was introduced to China in 1871 when a newly laid cable between Shanghai and Hong Kong connected Qing-era China to the British-dominated international telegraph network. When the People's Republic was founded in 1949, the telecommunications systems and facilities in China first established by the Qing and Republican ITA and Ministry of Posts and Communications had been seriously damaged from over thirty years of on and off war between warlords, Japan, and the two sides of the Chinese Civil War. What little remained was largely outdated and rudimentary and limited to the eastern coastal cities, the Nanjing-Shanghai region, and a few interior cities. In the 1950s existing facilities were repaired, and, with Soviet assistance, considerable progress was made toward establishing a long-distance telephone wire network connecting Beijing to provincial-level capitals. Communications in China were established rapidly in the early 1950s. By 1952 the principal telecommunications network centered on Beijing, and links to all large cities had finally been established. Work quickly got under way to repair, renovate and expand the system, and from 1956 telecommunications routes were extended more rapidly. To increase the efficiency of the communications system, the same lines were used for both telegraphic and telephone service, while Teletype and television (broadcasting) services were also added. In addition, conference telephone service was initiated, radio communications were improved, and the production of telecommunications equipment was accelerated. Growth in telecommunications halted with the general economic collapse after the Great Leap Forward (1958–1960) but revived in the 1960s after the telephone network was expanded and improved equipment was introduced, including imports of Western plants and equipment. In the years immediately following 1949, telecommunications – by telegraph or telephone – mainly used wire; by the 1970s, however, radio telecommunications equipment were increasingly used and began to replace wire lines. Microwave and satellite transmissions were soon introduced and have now become common. (China launched its first television-broadcast satellite in 1986.) In 1956 the first automatic speed Teletype was installed on the Beijing-Lhasa line. By 1964 such machines had been installed in most of China's major cities. Radio-television service also was installed in major cities, and radio teleprinters became widely used. Telecommunications networks expanded significantly as a result of the Third Front campaign to develop basic industry in national defense industry in China's rugged interior in case of invasion by the Soviet Union or the United States. Production of radios within the Third Front regions rose by 11,668%. An important component of the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1971–1975) was a major development program for the telecommunications system. The program allotted top priority to scarce electronics and construction resources and dramatically improved all aspects of China's telecommunications capabilities. Microwave radio relay lines and buried cable lines were constructed to create a network of wideband carrier trunk lines, which covered the entire country. China was linked to the international telecommunications network by the installation of communications satellite ground stations and the construction of coaxial cables linking Guangdong Province with Hong Kong and Macau. Provincial-level units and municipalities rapidly expanded local telephone and wire broadcasting networks. Expansion and modernization of the telecommunications system continued throughout the late-1970s and early 1980s, giving particular emphasis to the production of radio and television sets and expanded broadcasting capabilities. By 1987, China possessed a diversified telecommunications system that linked all parts of the country by telephone, telegraph, radio, and television. None of the telecommunications forms were as prevalent or as advanced as those in modern Western countries, but the system included some of the most sophisticated technology in the world and constituted a foundation for further development of a modern network. Overall, China's telecommunications services improved enormously during the 1980s, and, the pace of telecommunications growth and technology upgrading increased even more rapidly after 1990, especially as fiber-optic systems and digital technology were installed. After 1997, China's telecommunications services were enhanced further with the acquisition of Hong Kong's highly advanced systems. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, foreign investment in the country's telecommunications sector further encouraged growth. Notable has been the tremendous increase in Internet and cellular phone usage. China became the world leader in the early 21st century, in terms of number of cell phone subscribers. The nation ranks first in the world in numbers of both mobile and fixed-line telephones, and first in the number of internet users. China is the largest user of largest Voice calling over the Internet or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services with 51 million Tom-Skype users as of November 2007.
History of telecommunications services
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