Learn mandarin - Telecom: Cross-Straits phone calls increase

BIZCHINA / Biz Media Digest

Telecom: Cross-Straits phone calls increase

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-12-22 11:23

Both the number and duration of phone calls between the Chinese mainland
and Taiwan are increasing, showing a more frequent civilian contact
across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan media have reported.

About 530 million cross-Strait phone calls were made during the first
three quarters of this year, an increase of about 15 percent from the
same period last year, Taiwan authority statistics show.

It said the total time on the phone between the two sides reached 1.79
billion minutes in the first three quarters, an increase of more than 10
percent.

However, correspondence between the two sides fell by about 26 percent
during the same period because only less than two percent of Taiwanese
write letters nowadays, a result of the Internet and telecommunications
development, according to Taiwan media reports.

The statistics also show about 278,000 cross-Strait visits, an increase
of 18.3 percent, were made via the sea routes between two small islands
on the Taiwan side and Xiamen and Mawei of East China's Fujian Provinceon
the mainland side, during the first ten months of this year.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)

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