China Telecom is one of the 3 biggest telecommunication providers in China. It owns global largest fixed-line network that covers the cities and towns as well as the rural areas of China. As of December 2008, China Telecom provides telecom services nationwide to 208 million subscribers, broadband internet access to over 44 million subscribesr. In June 2008 China Telecom purchased China Unicom's nationwide CDMA business and assets, that gives China Telecom 22 million mobile subscribers. China Telecom's CDMA network total has 90,000 base stations (acquired from China Unicom ) and now it is increasing to 150,000. On 7 January 2009, China Telecom received 3G license based on CDMA 2000 standard, and in its new updating plan, 342 cities will be covered with CDMA 2000 3G network in 2009.



In China, mobile phone numbers have 11 digits in the format 1xx-xxxx-xxxx. The first three digits designate the carrier. China Telecom services numbers that the first three digits start with:

133 China Telecom CDMA
153 China Telecom CDMA
189 China Telecom CDMA