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The number of rural fixed-line telephone users topped that of urban areas in east China's Anhui Province in the first half of 2002, rising by 545,000 to 3,725,000,said Anhui Provincial Post and Telecommunications Bureau sources.
Rural fixed phone users stand at 52 percent of all the province's subscribers.
It is the first time in China that country dwellers have owned more telephones than townspeople, and indicates that Anhui's rural economy and living standards have reached a new high.
Jiang Yong, head of the Anhui bureau, believes that with the rural tax reforms of recent years, the annual income of a rural resident has risen by 200 yuan, directly stimulating telecommunications sales.
Meanwhile, a provincial government survey shows that nearly 7 million peasants from Anhui province work in major cities like Shanghai and in some coastal provinces. Their need to communicate with their families has spurred demand for installing telephones.
Rural telecommunication users continue to grow rapidly. More and more rural residents are doing business by telephone or the Internet.
Statistics show that at present China has 176 million mobile phone users, the largest number in the world, and 199 million fixed telephone subscribers, the second highest worldwide, among whom 74.11 million are rural residents.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2002)
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