Direct-dial services are available for all countries and regions worldwide with few exceptions and all the cities in China.

The local fixed phone system can support up to 1 million fixed phones and the local Little Smart Cell Phone system has a capacity of around 0.6 million. There are over815,400 fixed phone users, 488,700 Little Smart Cell Phone users and 315,000 computer net users.

Various value-added fixed phone and Little Smart Cell Phone services are available.

Broad-band citywide LAN has been built by Xiamen Telecom.

Net users can be connected to the Internet both by narrowband means, such as 163, 8163, and ISDN, and by fast broadband means such as DDN, ADSL, optical fiber plus LAN and wireless WLAN.

Digital communication methods such as optical fiber, frame relay, packet switching, DDN and digital circuit are available.

Such information services as IDC, call center are provided.

(2000)

Xiamen has satellite telecommunication earth station. International Direct-dial services are available to reach 210 countries or regions as well as more than 1,800 domestic cities.

More than 20 services are provided such as: Digital Data System (DDN), Packet Switching, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Internet and Chinanet services, ISDN, PAC, Telephone Information Service, Facsimile Service and "800" service, etc., providing a quick and convenient connection with all over the world.

Xiamen has an urban telephone density of 94.85 lines per 100 persons (comparable to Western European countries), and has 60,060 mobile phones. There are 133 thousand internet users. Telephone, mobile phone and Internet assembling are available immediately upon application.
Express mail services are available in Xiamen, such as EMS of China, UPS, DHL, Fedex, which provide a quick delivery services all over the world

In 2000, the value of post and telecommunications totaled 3.622 billion RMB, an increase of 49.4%, from which 3.51 billion RMB was created by telecommunications sector, an increase of 32.32%, and 114 million RMB was generated by the post administration, up 29%.

In the respect of telecommunication, on Aug. the 16th, 2000, Fujian Telecom Xiamen Company was created and Xiamen Telecommunication Industry Management Office was set up at the same time. In Oct., Guoxin Xiamen Company was merged into China Unicom Xiamen Company. As a result, there were several operators competing fairly in the telecommunication market in Xiamen.

In 2000, Xiamen Telecom Company opened a public switched telephone network for 5,892 subscribers. 19 module bureaus were established, 3 parent bureaus were expanded and 20 module bureaus were expanded. The renovation of CLIP for number showing of incoming phones was completed. At the same time, a bureau for the wireless fixed phones was established at Jiangtou. The work on installing 50 remote modules and 775 facilities for wireless fixed phones were done. Improvement had been made in change from Inter-province P2 to No.7 signalling, DDN service, adjustment of provincial long-distance network to TS and the ADC network. A bureau was also set up for communications with Mobile Company. The infrastructure developments were speeded up. Construction of workshops at Songyu, Jinli, Xianhou were completed and the construction of workshops at Tangbian, Xingdong, Qianbu and Hongwen was under way. Xiamen Telecom Company had a wider coverage of signals than before. China Unicom Xiamen Company had invested 170 million RMB in construction. As to the wireless paging system construction, connections between all satellite sub-stations and main satellite station in Xiamen were completed and a satellite transmission among base units was realized. The upgrading projects included the small paging system and queuing facilities at the call center. All these had improved the stability of system and work efficiency. The major projects completed were as the following. Firstly, 90 GSM base stations belonging to the 4th and 5th phase were put into service, ensuring the smooth communication in the Island. The GSM network had a seamless coverage of all towns in Xiamen and national highways and expressways in Xiamen region. Secondly, locations for 109 other base stations belong to the 4th and 5th phase were confirmed and the requisition of land was under way. Thirdly, construction of the 2nd exchange center was finished and TMS, C2, MSC2 and OMCR were all put into service. Fourthly, lining of optical fibers extended to 230 kilometres. By the end of 2000, the 4th phase construction of Xiamen Unicom GSM project had been completed and 80% of 5th phase had been completed.

By the end of 2000, the PSTN had a capacity of 620,000 phones. Currently, the number of subscribers amounted to 524,000, 9.34% of the 5.6095 million subscribers in Fujian and an increase of 17.73%. For the whole year, a number of 75,892 phones were added. The popularity of main phone routes was 38.49 lines per 100 people, an increase of 5.15 lines per 100 people. The number of ISDN users amounted to 2877, an increase of 1755. There were 35,249 IP phone users, an increase of 11,862. There were 72,639 registered Internet Users (8163). The number of mobile subscribers totaled over 600,000, an increase of 51.8%. The paging users amounted to 458,000, an increase of 7.6%.

In the respect of post construction, Xiamen Post Administration actively promoted the ISO quality system and passed the ISO9002 certification, the first one to receive ISO international certification. In 2000, the post revenue amounted to 231,050,000 RMB, an increase of 15.5%, from which 61.11 million RMB was from post savings, an increase of 6.7%; 56.67 million RMB was from EMS service, an increase of 18.3%; 1.55 RMB was from normal mail service and 44.95 million RMB were from stamp-collection business, an increase of 27.9%.

In 1999, Xiamen Transport, Post and Telecommunications Departments implemented to the letter Secretary General Jiang's keynote speech on reform and development of state-owned enterprises and the gist of Decisions on Major Issues Related to Reform and Development of State-owned Enterprises put forward at the 4th plenary meeting of the CPC and further propelled the reform in sectors of transport, post and telecommunications. As a result, rapid development had been achieved in these sectors. In 1999, the number of highway passengers delivered amounted to 28.629 million, up 18.3%. The number of water transport passengers totaled 3.157 million, an increase of 3.16%. The number of air passengers came to 3.266 million, up 8.82%. The number of marine transport passengers amounted to 305,800, an increase of 6.96%. The highway freight delivered was 15.057 million tons, an increase of 26.15%. The value of post and telecommunication business totaled 2.425 billion RMB, an increase of 12.7%.

(1999)

By the end of 1999, there had been 428,100 subscribers to programme-controlled phones, an increase of 53,803 users or 14.37%. There were 33.35 major phone lines per 100 people. In urban areas, there were 41.23 phones per 100 residents (in the Island, the number was 79.39 phones per 100 residents). The numbers of DDN subscribers and frame relay service users were 2700 and 1122 respectively. The users of Chinanet totaled 20020, an increase of 11633 users. 142,630,000 minutes were registered for the use of 163 service. At the end of the year, the number of mobile subscribers amounted to 396,400, an increase of 60.29%, among which 70391 or 18% of the mobile phone market were China Unicom users, an increase of 52674 subscribers over 1998, a factor of three. The wireless paging users totaled 435,200, a decrease of 1400 or 0.32%.

Telecommunication had played an essentially important role in the construction of information port. To improve the service and network and to meet the future demand, over one year, Xiamen Telecom Company had paid special attention to the infrastructure developments of local network. A programme-controlled exchange system was established for 58000-odd phones. In addition, there were 3 mother bureaus expanded and 20 module bureaus set up. Following that, the programme-controlled phone systems were capable of serving 599,700 subscribers. The upgrading of Fujitsu SDH Hardware of Xiamen Local Network and SDH Xiamen Station under the provincial network was completed. For the whole year, China Unicom Xiamen Company had invested 65.8 million RMB in GSM projects. Taking into consideration, the main equipment from the provincial Unicom company, the total investment amounted to 82.64 million RMB. The GSM exchange equipment was upgraded to offer service to extra 46000 subscribers. Interface center was also expanded to 2000 lines. The optical fiber extended for 200 kilometres. With 56 infrastructure developments in service, the scale of network was expanded from 46000 phones early the year to 61000 phones. The number of VLR reached 106000. The number of base units were expanded from original 24 to 80, basically covering the whole island. The telecommunication signals could basically cover main towns and highways in the mainland and the quality of communication was greatly improved. The capacity of digital telecommunication network was expanded with 6 gateways and related equipment was installed. Since its spin-off from Xiamen Telecom Company in July, over the past year, Xiamen Mobile Company had built or improved 33 GSM base units. Currently, there were 1999 GSM900M base units and 66 DCS1800 base units. With 262 GSM carrier frequency units added, the number of the units reached 2010. The upgrading of exchange system led to possibility of offering extra 80,000 phones. The 4th phase of GSM project with a total capacity of 480,000 phones was completed before the China International Fair for Investment and Trade. Locations for all base units and selection of equipment had been finished for the 5th GSM project. All these had laid a sound foundation for the expansion of mobile service. The number of increased mobile subscribers amounted to 96632. The total number of mobile subscribers was 326123 (26493 were analogy mobile service subscribers). The number of increased "Benditong" users reached 13292. Guoxin Xiamen Company attached great importance to the improvement of paging network and the construction of national connection network and information service network. Dadeng, Yundingyan and Zengcuoan became the new base units. In May, 7-frequency service was available in Zhangzhou and Xiamen. Early the year, Guoxin Paging Xiamen Company had completed construction of 12 satellite sub-stations for 280M National Network. In April, the information service network was constructed. With these measures, Guoxin Paging Xiamen Company managed to attract 6403 new subscribers per month on an average. Facing the tough competition of China Mobile and other paging companies, the net number of increased subscribers for the full year in Guoxin Paging Xiamen Company amounted to 26251.

Xiamen Post Adminsitration actively explored the market and offered new services including the purchase by mail, agent service, delivery service and etiquette service. The revenue from EMS business had an increase of 15% over 1998, among which the revenue from domestic EMS service had an increase of 43.3%. The number of increased "Green Card" users was 117,000, adding the total number of "Green Card" holders to 303000. More and more attention was paid to issuing of post souvenirs for tourists and enterprises. "Retail package service" was offered to subscription to newspapers and magazines. As a result, the retail turnover in this sector amounted to 5.2 million, up 50%. The percentage of retail revenue in the total revenue from newspapers and magazines was increased from 32.8% in 1998 to 42.3%. In addition, other services including sports lottery, purchase by mail and etiquette flowers were developed to expand the scope of postal service. All these had resulted satisfactory economic and social benefits.

For the whole year, the value of services provided by post and telecommunication sectors reached 2.425 billion RMB, an increase of 12.7%, from which 2.205 billion RMB came from telecommunication and 89 million RMB was from postal services.