Fixed telephone subscriptions - Country Ranking

Definition: Fixed telephone subscriptions refers to the sum of active number of analogue fixed telephone lines, voice-over-IP (VoIP) subscriptions, fixed wireless local loop (WLL) subscriptions, ISDN voice-channel equivalents and fixed public payphones.

Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report and database.

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 China 181,908,000.00 2020
2 United States 101,526,000.00 2020
3 Japan 61,978,590.00 2020
4 Germany 38,300,000.00 2020
5 France 37,759,000.00 2020
6 United Kingdom 32,037,000.00 2020
7 Brazil 30,653,810.00 2020
8 Iran 29,093,590.00 2020
9 Russia 25,892,400.00 2020
10 Mexico 24,500,460.00 2020
11 Korea 23,858,240.00 2020
12 India 20,052,160.00 2020
13 Italy 19,607,340.00 2020
14 Spain 19,455,660.00 2020
15 Canada 13,340,000.00 2020
16 Turkey 12,448,600.00 2020
17 Egypt 9,858,331.00 2020
18 Indonesia 9,662,135.00 2020
19 Malaysia 7,467,900.00 2020
20 Argentina 7,356,165.00 2020
21 Colombia 7,248,026.00 2020
22 Australia 6,200,000.00 2020
23 Poland 5,777,428.00 2020
24 Saudi Arabia 5,749,058.00 2020
25 Venezuela 5,251,182.00 2020
26 Portugal 5,212,507.00 2020
27 Greece 5,028,332.00 2020
28 Thailand 5,003,000.00 2020
29 Netherlands 4,937,000.00 2020
30 Algeria 4,784,306.00 2020
31 Philippines 4,731,196.00 2020
32 Belarus 4,406,560.00 2020
33 Hong Kong SAR, China 3,900,599.00 2020
34 Austria 3,786,725.00 2020
35 Belgium 3,634,639.00 2020
36 Uzbekistan 3,550,069.00 2020
37 Israel 3,370,000.00 2020
38 Ukraine 3,314,263.00 2020
39 Vietnam 3,205,775.00 2020
40 Kazakhstan 3,091,000.00 2020
41 Switzerland 3,071,296.00 2020
42 Romania 3,025,000.00 2020
43 Hungary 2,970,347.00 2020
44 Pakistan 2,876,794.00 2020
45 Syrian Arab Republic 2,857,193.00 2020
46 Iraq 2,699,758.00 2020
47 Sri Lanka 2,607,868.00 2020
48 Serbia 2,572,254.00 2020
49 Chile 2,567,938.00 2020
50 Peru 2,470,000.00 2020
51 United Arab Emirates 2,380,866.00 2020
52 Morocco 2,357,286.00 2020
53 Guatemala 2,272,467.00 2020
54 South Africa 2,098,802.00 2020
55 Ecuador 2,063,044.00 2020
56 Singapore 1,891,000.00 2020
57 Ireland 1,678,651.00 2020
58 Azerbaijan 1,652,688.00 2020
59 Libya 1,576,000.00 2020
60 Tunisia 1,533,273.00 2020
61 Cuba 1,502,230.00 2020
62 Lao PDR 1,491,000.00 2020
63 Sweden 1,478,610.00 2020
64 Bangladesh 1,390,048.00 2020
65 Czech Republic 1,335,224.00 2020
66 Croatia 1,299,329.00 2020
67 Ethiopia 1,252,000.00 2020
68 Yemen 1,240,000.00 2020
69 Uruguay 1,224,600.00 2020
70 Dem. People's Rep. Korea 1,180,000.00 2020
71 Dominican Republic 1,155,493.00 2020
72 Moldova 1,027,689.00 2020
73 Cameroon 964,378.00 2020
74 El Salvador 894,000.00 2020
75 Lebanon 875,480.00 2020
76 Bulgaria 872,757.00 2020
77 New Zealand 858,000.00 2020
78 Denmark 734,436.00 2020
79 Nepal 726,000.00 2020
80 Turkmenistan 717,000.00 2020
81 Puerto Rico 711,512.00 2020
82 Bosnia and Herzegovina 706,135.00 2020
83 Slovenia 704,909.00 2020
84 Panama 649,156.00 2020
85 Slovak Republic 648,462.00 2020
86 Bolivia 598,082.00 2020
87 Oman 594,550.00 2020
88 Kuwait 583,463.00 2020
89 Costa Rica 559,882.00 2020
90 Honduras 531,763.00 2020
91 Myanmar 523,951.00 2020
92 Tajikistan 502,000.00 2020
93 Mauritius 478,700.00 2020
94 Qatar 454,701.00 2020
95 Jamaica 436,249.00 2020
96 Armenia 427,539.00 2020
97 North Macedonia 415,390.00 2020
98 Jordan 391,486.00 2020
99 Georgia 387,698.00 2020
100 Norway 348,808.00 2020
101 Trinidad and Tobago 323,905.00 2020
102 Lithuania 322,108.00 2020
103 Cyprus 311,439.00 2020
104 Ghana 307,668.00 2020
105 Estonia 304,728.00 2020
106 Kyrgyz Republic 299,000.00 2020
107 Mali 281,638.00 2020
108 Bahrain 274,106.00 2020
109 Luxembourg 268,090.00 2020
110 Côte d'Ivoire 264,073.00 2020
111 Malta 259,456.00 2020
112 Zimbabwe 252,067.00 2020
113 Paraguay 249,231.00 2020
114 Senegal 228,774.00 2020
115 Finland 225,000.00 2020
116 Albania 223,469.00 2020
117 Latvia 211,849.00 2020
118 Nicaragua 210,981.00 2020
119 Montenegro 191,768.00 2020
120 Papua New Guinea 166,000.00 2020
121 Mongolia 160,153.00 2020
122 Afghanistan 145,787.00 2020
123 Namibia 140,370.00 2020
124 Botswana 140,003.00 2020
125 Sudan 129,408.00 2020
126 Barbados 128,000.00 2020
127 Guyana 125,000.00 2020
128 Angola 119,164.00 2020
129 Macao SAR, China 110,000.00 2020
130 Iceland 107,032.00 2020
131 Nigeria 107,031.00 2020
132 Brunei 103,885.00 2020
133 Suriname 103,240.00 2020
134 Somalia 91,000.00 2020
134 The Bahamas 91,000.00 2020
136 Uganda 90,774.00 2020
137 Mozambique 89,016.00 2020
138 Burkina Faso 75,039.00 2020
139 Tanzania 72,469.00 2020
140 Zambia 71,844.00 2020
141 Madagascar 69,000.00 2020
142 Kenya 66,646.00 2020
143 Eritrea 66,000.00 2020
144 Mauritania 62,099.00 2020
145 The Gambia 60,000.00 2020
146 Niger 58,000.00 2020
147 Cabo Verde 57,668.00 2020
148 Cambodia 55,603.00 2020
149 Fiji 48,510.00 2020
150 Togo 46,499.00 2020
151 New Caledonia 46,000.00 2020
152 Monaco 43,706.00 2020
153 Andorra 40,000.00 2020
154 Eswatini 39,000.00 2020
155 Djibouti 38,866.00 2020
156 St. Lucia 38,000.00 2020
157 Cayman Islands 36,000.00 2020
158 Benin 32,386.00 2020
159 Antigua and Barbuda 27,000.00 2020
160 Gabon 25,428.00 2020
161 Bhutan 22,987.00 2020
162 Belize 19,000.00 2020
163 Seychelles 18,882.00 2020
164 Burundi 18,300.00 2020
165 Congo 17,000.00 2020
166 Grenada 16,000.00 2020
166 San Marino 16,000.00 2020
168 St. Kitts and Nevis 15,000.00 2020
169 Liechtenstein 12,607.00 2020
170 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 12,483.00 2020
171 Malawi 12,465.00 2020
172 Rwanda 11,671.00 2020
173 Lesotho 11,574.00 2020
174 Equatorial Guinea 11,000.00 2020
175 Palau 8,000.00 2020
176 Comoros 7,573.00 2020
177 Solomon Islands 7,000.00 2020
177 Tonga 7,000.00 2020
179 Greenland 6,352.00 2020
180 Haiti 6,000.00 2020
180 Liberia 6,000.00 2020
180 Samoa 6,000.00 2020
183 Chad 5,340.00 2020
184 Vanuatu 3,472.00 2020
185 São Tomé and Principe 2,790.00 2020
186 Timor-Leste 2,012.00 2020
187 Tuvalu 2,000.00 2020
187 Central African Republic 2,000.00 2020
189 Dominica 1,000.00 2020
190 Sierra Leone 189.00 2020
191 Kiribati 33.00 2020
192 Guinea-Bissau 0.00 2018
192 Guinea 0.00 2018
192 Dem. Rep. Congo 0.00 2020
192 Nauru 0.00 2019

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Development Relevance: The quality of an economy's infrastructure, including power and communications, is an important element in investment decisions for both domestic and foreign investors. Government effort alone is not enough to meet the need for investments in modern infrastructure; public-private partnerships, especially those involving local providers and financiers, are critical for lowering costs and delivering value for money. In telecommunications, competition in the marketplace, along with sound regulation, is lowering costs, improving quality, and easing access to services around the globe. Access to telecommunication services rose on an unprecedented scale over the past two decades. This growth was driven primarily by wireless technologies and liberalization of telecommunications markets, which have enabled faster and less costly network rollout. Fixed telephone lines are those that connect a subscriber's terminal equipment to the public switched telephone network and that have a port on a telephone exchange. This term is synonymous with the term main station or Direct Exchange Line (DEL) that is commonly used in telecommunication documents. Integrated services digital network channels and fixed wireless subscribers are included. A fixed line also refers to a phone which uses a solid medium telephone line such as a metal wire or fiber optic cable for transmission as distinguished from a mobile cellular line which uses radio waves for transmission. Over the past decade new financing and technology, along with privatization and market liberalization, have spurred dramatic growth in telecommunications in many countries. With the rapid development of mobile telephony and the global expansion of the Internet, information and communication technologies are increasingly recognized as essential tools of development, contributing to global integration and enhancing public sector effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency.

Limitations and Exceptions: Operators have traditionally been the main source of telecommunications data, so information on subscriptions has been widely available for most countries. This gives a general idea of access, but a more precise measure is the penetration rate - the share of households with access to telecommunications. During the past few years more information on information and communication technology use has become available from household and business surveys. Also important are data on actual use of telecommunications services. Ideally, statistics on telecommunications (and other information and communications technologies) should be compiled for all three measures: subscriptions, access, and use. The quality of data varies among reporting countries as a result of differences in regulations covering data provision and availability. Discrepancies between global and national figures may arise when countries use a different definition than the one used by ITU. For example, some countries do not include the number of ISDN channels when calculating the number of fixed telephone lines. Discrepancies may also arise in cases where the end of a fiscal year differs from that used by ITU, which is the end of December of every year. A number of countries have fiscal years that end in March or June of every year. Data are usually not adjusted but discrepancies in the definition, reference year or the break in comparability in between years are noted in a data note. For this reason, data are not always strictly comparable. Missing values are estimated by ITU.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: A fixed telephone line (previously called main telephone line in operation) is an active line connecting the subscriber's terminal equipment to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and which has a dedicated port in the telephone exchange equipment. This term is synonymous with the terms main station or Direct Exchange Line (DEL) that are commonly used in telecommunication documents. It may not be the same as an access line or a subscriber. This should include the active number of analog fixed telephone lines, ISDN channels, fixed wireless, public payphones and VoIP subscriptions. Active lines are those that have registered an activity in the past three months. Data on fixed telephone lines are derived using administrative data that countries (usually the regulatory telecommunication authority or the Ministry in charge of telecommunications) regularly, and at least annually, collect from telecommunications operators. Data are considered to be very reliable, timely, and complete. Data for this indicator are readily available for approximately 90 percent of countries, either through ITU's World Telecommunication Indicators questionnaires or from official information available on the Ministry or Regulator's website. For the rest, information can be aggregated through operators' data (mainly through annual reports) and complemented by market research reports. For additional/latest information on sources and country notes, please also refer to: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Please cite the International Telecommunication Union for third-party use of these data.