| 23-23 Communications and Internet Services | ||||||
| Item | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | |
| Postal Services | ||||||
| Letter Mail (100 million articles) | 12.7 | 12.6 | 12.7 | 13.4 | 13.6 | |
| Parcels (10 000 pcs) | 142.5 | 112.5 | 102.7 | 97.5 | 92.3 | |
| Telephone Services①(10 000 working lines) | ||||||
| Residential | 209.8 | 215.9 | 219.0 | 221.0 | 216.1 | |
| Business | 152.6 | 154.9 | 164.9 | 173.6 | 176.5 | |
| Total | 362.4 | 370.8 | 383.9 | 394.6 | 392.6 | |
| FAX① (10 000 working lines) | 34.3 | 36.0 | 38.4 | 40.4 | 41.1 | |
| External Telephone Traffic Volume | ||||||
| (10 000 minutes) | ||||||
| Outgoing②③ | 173824 | 171852 | 255011 | 307489 | 348729 | |
| Incoming④ | 212048 | 195762 | 167922 | 185805 | 194235 | |
| External Telex Traffic Volume | ||||||
| (10 000 minutes) | ||||||
| Outward | 865.2 | 611.9 | 407.3 | 304.7 | 195.4 | |
| Inward | 872.4 | 575.8 | 412.9 | 323.0 | 247.1 | |
| Transit | 1097.6 | 771.3 | 534.8 | 362.8 | 303.6 | |
| Internal Telex Traffic (10 000 minutes) | 1714.8 | 1313.1 | 983.2 | 728.9 | 530.7 | |
| Public Telegram Traffic (10 000 messages) | ||||||
| Outward | 5.2 | 3.7 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 1.2 | |
| Inward | 3.4 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | |
| Inland Telegram (10 000 messages) | 1.1 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 0.3 | |
| Public Radio Paging Receivers①(numbers) | 932854 | 571800 | 342058 | 327768 | 253215 | |
| Public Mobile Radiotelephone Subscriber | ||||||
| Units①⑤ (numbers) | 2085600 | 2767941 | 3650238 | 4173318 | 4256422 | |
| (2127935) | (2898077) | (3989750) | (5234370) | (5701686) | ||
| Internet Services | ||||||
| No. of Licensed Internet Service | ||||||
| Providers (ISPs) | 124 | 133 | 159 | 235 | 259 | |
| No. of Customers of Licensed Internet | ||||||
| Service Providers (ISPs)⑥ | ||||||
| Registered Customer Accounts with Dial-up | ||||||
| Access (Excluding Internet Pre-paid Calling | ||||||
| Cards)⑦ | - | - | 1734254 | 2283047 | 2018238 | |
| Internet Pre-paid Calling Cards for Dial-up | ||||||
| Access | - | - | 117496 | 38708 | 18569 | |
| Registered Customer Accounts with Leased | ||||||
| Line Access⑦ | - | - | 7495 | 11527 | 7066 | |
| Registered Broadband Internet Access | ||||||
| Customer Accounts⑦⑧⑨ | - | - | - | 392118 | 623302 | |
| Internet Traffic Volume⑥ | ||||||
| Customer Access via Public Switched | ||||||
| Telephone Networks⑩(10 000 minutes) | 124596 | 535902 | 1092312 | 1498859 | 1105581 | |
| Customer Access via Broadband | ||||||
| Networks⑨⑾ (terabits) | - | - | - | 2909 | 73607 | |
| Notes:①Figures are as at end of the year. ②Figures include facsimile and data. ③Figures prior to 1999 refer to voice traffic only. ④Estimated figures. | ||||||
| ⑤Excluding pre-paid SIM cards. Figures including prepaid SIM cards are presented in brackets. | ||||||
| ⑥Estimated figures are based on the return from the ISPs and do not include users who are not customers on the licensed ISPs. | ||||||
| ⑦Registered customer accounts refer to the customer accounts of ISPs (including those free-of-charge customer accounts). For a | ||||||
| registered customer account which has more than one user login ID, it is counted as one registered customer account only. Figures | ||||||
| do not include customer accounts which are provided with e-mail addresses only. | ||||||
| ⑧Figures were first available in February 2000. | ||||||
| ⑨Broadband Internet access refers to services with downloading speed of 1 Mbps or above using cable modem, ATM (asynchronous | ||||||
| transfer mode), ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line), DSL (digital subscriber line) or other technologies. | ||||||
| ⑩Figures were first available in August 1997. Not including customer access via leased circuits and broadband services. | ||||||
| ⑾Figures were first available in November 2000. | ||||||