Telecommunication in China

Compared to the European Union, China has a slight downturn in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +86, there were a total of 1.84 billion connections in 2018. Among them were 1.65 billion million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 1.2 per person. In the EU, this figure is 1.2 mobile phones per person.

In the expansion of broadband Internet connections, China is back. Around 54% of all residents have access to the Internet. Approximately 29% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the previous ISDN (more than 2048 kbit/s).

With about 20.60 million webhosts, China is below the world's average by population.


Back to overview: China

Development of telephone and internet connections

The following diagrams show the development of the different telephone and Internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100% mean that on average every inhabitant has more than one subscription.


Spread of internet connections in China 1990 - 2017




Broadband internet in China 2000 - 2018




Landlines in the years 1990 - 2018




Mobile phones in China 1990 - 2018




Spreading in 2018 China
Total		 China
percent		 EU
Total		 EU
percent
Broadband users 407.38 m 29.25 % 152.50 m 34.13 %
Landlines 192.09 m 13.79 % 171.14 m 38.31 %
Mobile cellulars 1.65 bn 118.42 % 545.16 m 122.02 %