24-25  Communications and Internet Services
     
Item 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
           
  Postal Services                                                                   
      Letter Mail                (100 million articles) 13.4 13.6 12.7 12.6 12.7
      Parcels                       (10 000 pcs) 97.5 92.3 92.8 94.6 93.8
  Telephone Services①②(10 000 working lines)  
      Residential                            221.0 216.1 213.4 211.9 211.8
      Business                               173.6 176.5 170.8 170.1 166.2
      Total                                  394.6 392.6 384.2 382.0 378.0
  Fax                           (10 000 working lines) 40.4 41.1 54.6 49.1 45.6
  External Telephone Traffic Volume  
                                        (10 000 minutes)       
      Outgoing                             307489 348729 395090 423260 493653
      Incoming                           185805 194235 175599 167620 203725
  External  Telex Traffic Volume  
                                         (10 000 minutes)             
      Outward                               304.7 195.4 150.1 92.9 62.8
      Inward                               323.1 247.1 229.1 162.9 102.4
      Transit                                362.9 303.6 212.2 142.4 87.1
  Internal Telex Traffic  (10 000 minutes) 698.9 530.7 294.9 206.9 178.8
  Public Telegram Traffic(10 000 messages)  
      Outward                               2.1 1.2 0.7 0.5 -
      Inward                             0.8 0.5 0.4 0.2 -
  Inland Telegram             (10 000 messages) 0.1 0.3 0.005 0.007 -
  Public Radio Paging Receivers(numbers) 327768 253215 197405 177926 157695
  Public Mobile Radiotelephone Subscriber  
    Units②⑥⑦                                      (numbers) 4173318 4256422 4207465 4407569 4575069
  (5234370) (5701686) (6218984) (7194335) (8157960)
  Internet Services  
    No. of Licensed Internet Service    
     Providers (ISPs) 235 258 235 201 188
    No. of Customers of Licensed Internet    
     Service Providers (ISPs)②⑧  
        Registered Customer Accounts with Dial-up  
         Access (Excluding Internet Pre-paid Calling  
         Cards) 2283047 2018238 1371705 1084368 1003604
        Internet Pre-paid Calling Cards for Dial-up   
         Access 38708 18569 14978 20411 9800
        Registered Customer Accounts with Leased  
         Line Access 11527 7066 3439 2739 2259
        Registered Broadband Internet Access   
         Customer Accounts⑨⑩(11) 392118 623302 989115 1230607 1484486
    Internet Traffic Volume  
        Customer Access via Public Switched  
         Telephone Networks(12)  (10 000 minutes) 1498859 1105581 555023 356394 189698
        Customer Access via Broadband   
         Networks(11)(13)                (terabits) 2909 73607 215296 933728 2949652
           
   
Notes : Figures inlcude direct dialing in lines, facsimile lines and Datel lines.  Figures are as at end of the year.  
            Figures include facsimile and data.  Estimated figures.            Related service has been terminated since 1 January 2004.   
            Excluding pre-paid SIM cards. Figures including prepaid SIM cards are presented in brackets.  
            The figure of 2004 includes 3G mobile services.  
            Estimated figures are based on the return from the ISPs and do not include users who are not customers of the licensed ISPs.  
            Registered 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.  
            Figures were first available in February 2000.  
            (11)Broadband 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.  
            (12)Not including customer access via leased circuits and broadband services.  
            (13)Figures were first available in November 2000.