With the founding of the Zhejiang Telecom Administration on Wednesday, the last provincial administration to be established in China, the country has set up a nationwide supervision system for its giant and profitable telecom sector.
Provincial telecom administrations are under direction of both the Ministry of Information Industry and provincial governments.
They are responsible for planning and management of public telecom facilities and safeguarding a fair and just market for competition.
China's number of phone subscribers reached 229 million by the end of last year, including 144 million fixed phone users and 85 million mobile phone users.
(People's Daily 08/30/2001)
