# Telecommunications

By [iesha168](https://paragraph.com/@iesha168) · 2021-10-29

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China is the largest telecom market in the world and currently has the [largest number of active cellphones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use) of any country in the world, with over 1.5 billion subscribers, as of 2018.[\[454\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-473) It also has the world's largest number of [internet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_Internet_users) and [broadband users](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_broadband_Internet_users), with over 800 million Internet users as of 2018—equivalent to around 60% of its population—and almost all of them being mobile as well.[\[455\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-474) By 2018, China had more than 1 billion 4G users, accounting for 40% of world's total.[\[456\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-475) China is making rapid advances in [5G](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G)—by late 2018, China had started large-scale and commercial 5G trials.[\[457\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-476)

[China Mobile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Mobile), [China Unicom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Unicom) and [China Telecom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Telecom), are the three large providers of mobile and internet in China. China Telecom alone served more than 145 million broadband subscribers and 300 million mobile users; China Unicom had about 300 million subscribers; and China Mobile, the biggest of them all, had 925 million users, as of 2018.[\[458\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-477)[\[459\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-478)[\[460\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-479) Combined, the three operators had over 3.4 million 4G base-stations in China.[\[461\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-:0-480) Several Chinese telecommunications companies, most notably [Huawei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei) and [ZTE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZTE), have been accused of spying for the Chinese military.[\[462\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-481)

China has developed its own [satellite navigation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_navigation) system, dubbed [Beidou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeiDou_Navigation_Satellite_System), which began offering commercial navigation services across Asia in 2012[\[463\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-CustomersDec2012-482) as well as global services by the end of 2018.[\[464\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-483)[\[465\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-484) The 35th and final satellite of Beidou constellation was launched into orbit on 23 June 2020, thus becoming the 3rd completed global navigation satellite system in service after [GPS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System) and [GLONASS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLONASS).

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*Originally published on [iesha168](https://paragraph.com/@iesha168/telecommunications)*