Hong Kong SAR, China - Fixed telephone subscriptions

The value for Fixed telephone subscriptions in Hong Kong SAR, China was 3,900,599 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 4,419,423 in 2013 and a minimum value of 79,145 in 1960.

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:

Year Value
1960 79,145
1961 79,145
1962 79,145
1963 79,145
1964 79,145
1966 79,145
1967 79,145
1968 79,145
1969 79,145
1970 473,000
1971 473,000
1972 473,000
1973 473,000
1974 473,000
1975 837,023
1976 909,679
1977 993,882
1978 1,082,408
1979 1,172,530
1980 1,278,866
1981 1,383,667
1982 1,476,960
1983 1,573,420
1984 1,664,372
1985 1,764,338
1986 1,877,322
1987 2,021,394
1988 2,190,997
1989 2,345,236
1990 2,474,998
1991 2,642,414
1992 2,819,797
1993 2,992,056
1994 3,149,280
1995 3,277,854
1996 3,451,241
1997 3,646,516
1998 3,729,191
1999 3,868,794
2000 3,925,843
2001 3,897,558
2002 3,831,829
2003 3,806,444
2004 3,763,350
2005 3,792,912
2006 3,835,936
2007 4,209,125
2008 4,183,017
2009 4,277,297
2010 4,361,669
2011 4,342,230
2012 4,381,555
2013 4,419,423
2014 4,417,856
2015 4,331,725
2016 4,318,346
2017 4,249,372
2018 4,196,061
2019 4,029,603
2020 3,900,599

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.

Classification

Topic: Infrastructure Indicators

Sub-Topic: Communications