Access         Provincial Broadband Network to Reach 2.5G by Yearend The capacity of backbone networks linking provincial capital cities and major cities in East China will be upgraded to 2.5G from existing 155M and this is predicted to be finished in the first half of the next year. Meanwhile, the capacity of China Telecom's international exit will be upgrade 2 to 3 times over current 1.2G. China Telecom will develop various services like ISDN and ISDL to facilitate customers' surfing on the Internet. (10/00 Source: People´s Daily)     Number of China's mobile phone users reached 85.3 million The number of users was up 97 percent from 43.3 million users in 1999. Mobile telecommunications accounted for 42 percent of last year's total telecoms revenue of 307.4 billion yuan (37 billion dollars). China's fixed-line market grew by 32 percent to 145 million users. (02/01 Source: Ministry of Information Industry, P.R.C.)     China Expects Phone Users to Triple to 600 Million in Five Years That will make China the biggest telephony market in the world, ahead of the United States. The penetration rate in China at the moment, with only 15 telephones for every 100 people will be adjusted accordingly. At the end of June China had 127 million subscribers for fixed-line services. (9/00 Source: Agence France Presse)     Texas Instruments China Inc., a unit of Texas Instruments Inc. (US) and the Government of the PRC Will assist and supply equipment for the development of ADSL services in China. (11/99)*     Oy Nokia AB (Finland), Sohu.com (Beijing) and Beijing Mobile Communications Corp. Will partner to develop mobile Internet services and applications for wireless terminal users in China. (1/00)*     T&L, a joint venture of TCL International Holdings (Hong Kong) and Lotus Pacific Inc. (US) Signed a 15 year agreement with Shanghai´s Radio, Film and Television Bureau to provide Internet access to households through Shanghai´s cable network. (12/99)*       * Source: China Business Review Internet | Access | eBusiness | PC | Software | Joint Ventures | Mergers & Acquisitions | Venture Capital | Intellectual Property