Development of telecommunication in China (7)

（Xinhua） 08:17, November 22, 2012

File photo taken on April 23, 2002 shows that people make long-distance calls in public telephone cubes in Yan'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.(Xinhua/Wang Song)

Telephone used to be a luxurious tool for communication in China. According to the statistics in 1980, for every 100 people, there was 0.43 telephone.

The Chinese economic reform in the late 1970s witnessed a surge in the development of the telecommunication industry. The appearance of public telephones, IC card telephones, pagers and other communication tools greatly facilitated people's life.

In the 21st century, mobile phones and internet have gradually become the main means of communication in Chinese people's daily life. Up to the first quarter in 2012, the number of telephone users in China reached over 1.3 billion, of which more than 1 billion were mobile phone users.

The number of mobile phone users in 2012 doubled compared with 5 years ago.