Internet in Tibet

What is the point to introduce 3G mobile phones if the word 'Tibet' is today banned by the Great Firewall of China. 
Propaganda is one thing, reality another.
Do the Tibetans in exile really want to return to 'their Motherland' in these conditions? Doubtful!




Tibet to have 100,000 Internet users
Xinhua 2010-02-01
Tibet is expected to have 100,000 Internet users this year, a 15 percent rise from 2009, according to the Tibet Autonomous Regional Communications Administration.
The number of such users was 919,000 in 2009, up 15.43 percent from the previous year, much higher than the growth rate of telephone and mobile phone subscribers.
File photo shows two Tibetan women using a 3G mobile phone in Tingri County, Xigaze Prefecture, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.  (Photo: Tibet Daily)
Meanwhile, the overall telecommunications rates in 2010 will decrease by nine percent.
Tibet's telecommunications industry reported a turnover of five billion yuan RMB (732 million U.S. dollars) last year, up 25.3 percent year on year, with its operating income hitting 2.2 billion yuan RMB (322 million dollars), an increase of 21.23 percent, higher than any other province-level area in China.
Tibet had 1.79 million telephone and mobile phone users at the end of 2009, with every 100 people having 19 telephones and 43 mobile phones.
Qing Qi, director of the administration, said that Tibet's telecommunications sector is set to garner 5.4 billion yuan RMB (790 million dollars) in its turnover and 2.3 billion yuan RMB (337 million dollars) in its operating income this year, up 7.92 percent and 2.79 percent, respectively.
Tibet made telephone service accessible to 404 villages in 2009, with the number of villages having access to telephones reaching 4,454, or 85 percent of its total.
This year, Tibet will enable another 176 villages to have access to telephones, with telephones accessible to 88 percent of its villages.