The company originated as a government agency of the. On 27 April 1995, it was registered as a separate legal entity as Directorate General of Telecommunications, P&T, China, using "China Telecom" as brand name. On 17 May 2000 it was registered as China Telecommunications Corporation. In May 2002, China Netcom Corporation was spun off as a separate company that was also supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council directly. It also owned subsidiaries in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Henan and Shandong that formerly belonged to China Telecommunications Corporation. According to the United States Department of Defense, the company has links to the People's Liberation Army. On 10 September 2002, China Telecom Corporation Limited was spun-off as a listed company. The listed company gradually acquired the assets from China Telecommunications Corporation., however, China Telecommunications Corporation still owned the controlling stake in the company, for 70.89%. In 2009 China Telecommunications Corporation received some of the assets of China Satellite Communications. The company provides fixed-line and Xiaolingtong telephone services to 216 million people as of April 2008, and broadband internet access to over 38 million subscribers, providing approximately 62% of China's internet bandwidth. On 2 June 2008, China Telecommunications Corporation announced that it would purchase China Unicom's nationwide CDMA business and assets for, giving it 43 million mobile subscribers. According to the company, the listed portion of China Telecom Group paid, the unlisted portion of China Telecom Group paid. On 7 January 2009, China Telecommunications Corporation was awarded CDMA 2000 license to expand its business to 3G telecommunication.
China Telecom has an English Online Store which is hosted by China Telecom Beijing Branch. This English based Online Store is an eCommerce website, which allows international customers to purchase China Telecom products and services using their international credit cards via Internet. The products sold online are: ChinaNet Wi-Fi, Refills, Mobile Broadband and Mobile Phone services.
Consolidation and expansion
On 2 June 2008, the company announced it would acquire China Unicom's CDMA business and network for a total of in cash, a series of transactions aimed transform the company into a fully integrated telecommunications operator after its expected completion in the next six months to one year. Such shifts mark a new era for the Telecommunications industry in China in which analyst have further commented that these changes are aimed at promoting a more fair and competitive industry environment. China Telecom was chosen by the Chinese Government as an investor in the Philippines for providing telecom services. They were later chosen as 'provisional' telecommunications provider of the country after a bidding led by the Philippine government on November 7, 2018. As current laws restrict foreign ownership to 40%, China Telecom forms a venture with local companies Udenna Corporation and Chelsea Logistics under the franchise of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. The selection was formalized on 20 November after the Philippine National Telecommunications Commission junked petitions from its rival bids. On 8 July 2019, Mislatel renamed to Dito Telecommunity and at the same time, was granted its permit to operate. The firm will begin its commercial operations on the second quarter of 2020.
Rerouted Internet traffic
On 8 April 2010 China Telecom rerouted about 15% of foreign Internet traffic through Chinese servers for 18 minutes. The traffic included the commercial websites of Dell, IBM, Microsoft, and Yahoo! as well as government and military sites in the United States. China Telecom denied hijacking any Internet traffic.
