Posted on 02/05/2021 6:07:31 PM PST by SeekAndFind
China recently issued conflicting sets of data for the number of cell phone and landline users in the country. But the data all reflect a net loss of millions of cell phone users, leading some to speculate whether the decline was due to the economic downturn, pandemic-related deaths, or something else all together.
Today, nearly every Chinese person needs a cell phone to commute into major cities. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities mandate citizens to input their health information into a cellphone app, which then generates a QR code that determines a person’s risk of getting the disease and thus, whether the person can pass through security checkpoints.
The code is scanned for entering a residential compound, taking a bus or metro, visiting a grocery store, and so on.
Thus, the drop in users is unusual given that there is a greater, not lesser, need for cell phones.
“It’s hard to find a credible reason to explain why so many cellphone users dropped in China when the market had a big need for it in 2020,” said U.S.-based China affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan in a phone interview.
“Owning a cellphone is very cheap in China…In other words, people won’t end phone service because of the cost issue in general,” Tang added.
For comparison, in 2019, the number of Chinese cellphone users went up by 35.25 million, while landline users dropped by 1.05 million, according to data from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Landline phones have become less of a necessity following the widespread use of cellphones, and thus, its use has been on a downward trend. But the drop in cellphone users is hard to explain.
Tang noted that with the Chinese regime’s underreporting of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, “even if a small percentage of the dropped users are people who died of COVID-19, the number is shocking.”
The Epoch Times previously reported that China lost 21 million cellphone users from November 2019 to February 2020. At that time, the MIIT claimed the reason was due to the bad economy.
CONFLICTING DATA
Telecommunication World is a weekly magazine that was founded and managed by MIIT.
On Jan. 23, the magazine published on its website a statistical bulletin about the Chinese telecommunications business in 2020.
According to the bulletin, “the whole country lost 16.4 million phone users in 2020, and the total number of users dropped to 1.776 billion.” In detail, cellphone users dropped by 7.28 million to 1.594 billion, while landline users dropped by 9.13 million to 182 million.”
However, these numbers are conflicted with the numbers published by mobile carriers and on the MIIT website.
China only has three mobile carriers, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. They recently published their performance reports.
The largest, China Mobile, announced that it lost 8.359 million mobile users in 2020 and had a total of 941.918 million mobile users by the end of 2020.
China Telecom announced that it gained 15.45 million mobile users in 2020 and had a total of 351.02 million users by the end of 2020.
China Unicom announced that it had lost 12.664 million mobile users in 2020, for a total of 305.811 million users.
Judging from that data, there was a net loss of 5.573 million mobile users (-8.359 + 15.45 – 12.664) in 2020.
On Jan. 22, the MIIT announced on its website the total number of phone users by the end of 2020, showing that China had 181.9 million landline users and 1.594 billion cell phone users.
MIIT did not have figures for the end of 2019, but did release data for November 2019—before the pandemic spread widely in China.
Then, comparing the November 2019 data to the December 2020 data, the number of cell phone users fell by 6.89 million, while landline users dropped by 8.92 million.
I know a few people who don’t have internet and still use 1970’s landlines only.
They actually are happier people too considering all the poison on the internet and fake news.
More than you'd think. Internet providers force them with the TV-Phone-Internet bundling packages.
They literally had 20 million cell phones just go dark last year all just a coincidence
Last landline I ever had was in 1999 or so.
No one living overseas (except strangely in the Philippines) has one, where you get one as part of your fiber internet) Didn’t have one in Europe (Germany, Netherlands or Spain), the Middle East (Dubai or Bahrain) or most parts of Asia.
In the US, it’s been Internet and Cable only through Xfinity.
know a few people who don’t have internet and still use 1970’s landlines only.
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Interesting, considering most providers phased out their copper-based analog POTS systems years to a over a decade ago.
No internet, no phone service.
We see this story every year. They will run out completely at this rate.
My landline has 99.99999% uptime and sounds good.
I really have no complaints
Good for you using ancient 1970’s era technology. Perhaps one year you will join the 21st century. Last I used a POTS landline phone or even had a POTS landline phone was probably the late 1990s.
[Problem is most Chinese who live in big cities NEED these phones.
The digitization level is very high in China. People can’t survive without a cellphone, Dealing with the government for pensions and social security, buying train tickets, shopping … no matter what people want to do, they are required to use cellphones.
The CCP regime requires all Chinese to use their cellphones to generate a health code. Only with a green health code are Chinese allowed to move in China now. It’s VERY DIFFICULT for a person to cancel his cellphone.]
As in locales outside of China, cash is very popular among vendors, although customers generally prefer electronic payments, for convenience’s sake. Of course, people whose businesses take in a lot of cash receipts will likely prefer to use cash to pay for anything they buy. Using these cash receipts for day-to-day expenses helps minimize the amount of money they have to stash in hidden compartments around their homes, smuggle out of the country or convert to bitcoin through illicit local brokers (who are presumably doing land office business, thanks to Xi Jinping’s crackdown on capital outflows).
Are foreign credit cards accepted in China? How much cash do I need? When and where can I exchange Chinese yuan? Can I use mobile payment? These are all common questions for travelers to China, and in this guide, we’ll provide all the information you need on how to make and manage payments during your trip to China.
Cash or Credit Card?
Cash is still more widely used in China than credit cards, especially in smaller cities and outside of more touristy areas. That said, many places in China, including hotels, upscale restaurants, and foreign brand-name stores accept credit cards, so it is worth bringing your credit card with you. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express are all widely accepted in big cities in China.
Depending on your bank, using a foreign credit card in China will usually incur a foreign currency exchange fee and a transaction fee from either your home or the local bank, which can add up fast. Because of this, we recommend only using a credit card for major transactions such as hotels, tours, flight tickets, and potentially costly purchases such as jewelry or art.
Meanwhile, make sure that you have enough cash on you to handle smaller payments whenever you’re out and about, as foreign credit cards and debit cards may not be accepted everywhere. ]
I suppose that is possible, as much as I hate this “fact check” stuff. You can’t prove a negative. But doesn’t the CCP rely on cell phones for their social credit system? I suppose it’s possible people would have 2 cell phone lines - one for work, one for personal - but they’d have to have them linked in some way to earn their points, no?
Forcing millions into lockdown in their homes over a pandemic is a great way to kill off your political enemies without anyone watching. “Never let a crisis go to waste,” isn’t that what the Democrats say?
You see American liberals moving in the same direction - seeking to eliminate, not just silence, anyone who dissents.
You cannot pay forbplan via cell phone. Heck even i do that! Lol
I still have a landline, tho’ the actual connection is fiber-optic, not copper. I use it mainly because often the cell reception here is spotty and to send faxes with confidential information — usually regarding health or insurance.
I think that sentence needs a comma. ;-)
bmp
Christians and Uighurs exterminated
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