Indeed, through sound policies and massive investment in infrastructure and services, the number of mobile and fixed line telephone users in China has reached 200 million, making China's telecom network the second largest in the world after the United States, Tung said. The telecom sector, he added, is the fastest-growing sector in China, with increases of 20 to 30 percent every year. On the opening day of the show, the UN's ITU also released its Asia Pacific Telecommunication Indicators Report. China now has 250 ISPs with 3 million paying subscribers. But only 1.2 percent of the population owns a PC, the report said.
China also has vast cellular potential.
According to the report, only 3.42 out of every 100 inhabitants have a mobile phone, while 8.58 out of 100 have a fixed line. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole appears to be catching up to Hong Kong as well. United Nations predictions show that by 2010, the region will dominate the global telecom market. The ITU's General Secretary Yoshio Utsumi stressed the region's cellular future at the conference. In the last three years, more than 400 million people have signed up for a mobile cellular telephone.