The 2009 CIA World Factbook

by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

Rank country Suffrage Date of Information

1 Bolivia 21.00 NA 2 Solomon Islands 21.00 NA 3 Fiji 21.00 NA 4 Central African Republic 21.00 NA 5 Gabon 21.00 NA 6 Oman 21.00 NA 7 Malaysia 21.00 NA 8 Saudi Arabia 21.00 NA 9 Tokelau 21.00 NA 10 Samoa 21.00 NA 11 Tonga 21.00 NA 12 Singapore 21.00 NA 13 Maldives 21.00 NA 14 Lebanon 21.00 NA 15 Bahrain 20.00 NA 16 Nauru 20.00 NA 17 Japan 20.00 NA 18 Taiwan 20.00 NA 19 Cameroon 20.00 NA 20 Korea, South 19.00 NA 21 Aruba 18.00 NA 22 Antigua and Barbuda 18.00 NA 23 Afghanistan 18.00 NA 24 Algeria 18.00 NA 25 Azerbaijan 18.00 NA 26 Albania 18.00 NA 27 Armenia 18.00 NA 28 Barbados 18.00 NA 29 Burma 18.00 NA 30 Bolivia 18.00 NA 31 Bosnia and Herzegovina 18.00 NA 32 Belize 18.00 NA 33 Bangladesh 18.00 NA 34 Bahamas, The 18.00 NA 35 Belgium 18.00 NA 36 Bermuda 18.00 NA 37 Botswana 18.00 NA 38 Northern Mariana Islands 18.00 NA 39 Colombia 18.00 NA 40 Comoros 18.00 NA 41 Cocos (Keeling) Islands 18.00 NA 42 Cayman Islands 18.00 NA 43 Chile 18.00 NA 44 China 18.00 NA 45 Congo, Democratic Republic of the 18.00 NA 46 Congo, Republic of the 18.00 NA 47 Czech Republic 18.00 NA 48 Ethiopia 18.00 NA 49 El Salvador 18.00 NA 50 Eritrea 18.00 NA 51 Estonia 18.00 NA 52 Equatorial Guinea 18.00 NA 53 Ireland 18.00 NA 54 Egypt 18.00 NA 55 Ecuador 18.00 NA 56 Guyana 18.00 NA 57 Guinea 18.00 NA 58 Guatemala 18.00 NA 59 Greece 18.00 NA 60 Germany 18.00 NA 61 Greenland 18.00 NA 62 Grenada 18.00 NA 63 Gibraltar 18.00 NA 64 Ghana 18.00 NA 65 Libya 18.00 NA 66 Luxembourg 18.00 NA 67 Lesotho 18.00 NA 68 Liechtenstein 18.00 NA 69 Slovakia 18.00 NA 70 Liberia 18.00 NA 71 Lithuania 18.00 NA 72 Latvia 18.00 NA 73 Kiribati 18.00 NA 74 Mozambique 18.00 NA 75 Mexico 18.00 NA 76 Malta 18.00 NA 77 Mauritania 18.00 NA 78 Mauritius 18.00 NA 79 Morocco 18.00 NA 80 Monaco 18.00 NA 81 Mali 18.00 NA 82 Macedonia 18.00 NA 83 Zimbabwe 18.00 NA 84 Zambia 18.00 NA 85 Yemen 18.00 NA 86 Swaziland 18.00 NA 87 Wallis and Futuna 18.00 NA 88 Namibia 18.00 NA 89 Virgin Islands 18.00 NA 90 Vietnam 18.00 NA 91 British Virgin Islands 18.00 NA 92 Venezuela 18.00 NA 93 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 18.00 NA 94 Uzbekistan 18.00 NA 95 Uruguay 18.00 NA 96 United States 18.00 NA 97 Ukraine 18.00 NA 98 United Kingdom 18.00 NA 99 Uganda 18.00 NA 100 Tanzania 18.00 NA 101 Turkmenistan 18.00 NA 102 Tuvalu 18.00 NA 103 Turkey 18.00 NA 104 Tunisia 18.00 NA 105 Sao Tome and Principe 18.00 NA 106 Togo 18.00 NA 107 Turks and Caicos Islands 18.00 NA 108 Tajikistan 18.00 NA 109 Thailand 18.00 NA 110 Trinidad and Tobago 18.00 NA 111 Switzerland 18.00 NA 112 Syria 18.00 NA 113 Sweden 18.00 NA 114 Saint Lucia 18.00 NA 115 Spain 18.00 NA 116 Somalia 18.00 NA 117 San Marino 18.00 NA 118 Sierra Leone 18.00 NA 119 Slovenia 18.00 NA 120 Senegal 18.00 NA 121 South Africa 18.00 NA 122 Saint Kitts and Nevis 18.00 NA 123 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 18.00 NA 124 Rwanda 18.00 NA 125 Russia 18.00 NA 126 Puerto Rico 18.00 NA 127 Philippines 18.00 NA 128 Romania 18.00 NA 129 Saint Martin 18.00 NA 130 Marshall Islands 18.00 NA 131 Serbia 18.00 NA 132 Qatar 18.00 NA 133 Guinea-Bissau 18.00 NA 134 Palau 18.00 NA 135 Papua New Guinea 18.00 NA 136 Portugal 18.00 NA 137 Panama 18.00 NA 138 Poland 18.00 NA 139 Pakistan 18.00 NA 140 Peru 18.00 NA 141 Pitcairn Islands 18.00 NA 142 Paraguay 18.00 NA 143 New Zealand 18.00 NA 144 Netherlands Antilles 18.00 NA 145 Suriname 18.00 NA 146 Nepal 18.00 NA 147 Norway 18.00 NA 148 Netherlands 18.00 NA 149 Nigeria 18.00 NA 150 Vanuatu 18.00 NA 151 Niger 18.00 NA 152 Norfolk Island 18.00 NA 153 Niue 18.00 NA 154 New Caledonia 18.00 NA 155 Montenegro 18.00 NA 156 Malawi 18.00 NA 157 Montserrat 18.00 NA 158 Mongolia 18.00 NA 159 Mayotte 18.00 NA 160 Moldova 18.00 NA 161 Macau 18.00 NA 162 Madagascar 18.00 NA 163 Kyrgyzstan 18.00 NA 164 Kenya 18.00 NA 165 Jordan 18.00 NA 166 Jamaica 18.00 NA 167 Iraq 18.00 NA 168 Cote d'Ivoire 18.00 NA 169 Italy 18.00 NA 170 Israel 18.00 NA 171 Laos 18.00 NA 172 Kazakhstan 18.00 NA 173 Kosovo 18.00 NA 174 Christmas Island 18.00 NA 175 Iran 18.00 NA 176 India 18.00 NA 177 Iceland 18.00 NA 178 Hungary 18.00 NA 179 Croatia 18.00 NA 180 Honduras 18.00 NA 181 Hong Kong 18.00 NA 182 Haiti 18.00 NA 183 Georgia 18.00 NA 184 Gambia, The 18.00 NA 185 France 18.00 NA 186 French Polynesia 18.00 NA 187 Faroe Islands 18.00 NA 188 Micronesia, Federated States of 18.00 NA 189 Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) 18.00 NA 190 Finland 18.00 NA 191 Dominican Republic 18.00 NA 192 Dominica 18.00 NA 193 Djibouti 18.00 NA 194 Denmark 18.00 NA 195 Cyprus 18.00 NA 196 Cook Islands 18.00 NA 197 Cape Verde 18.00 NA 198 Costa Rica 18.00 NA 199 Sri Lanka 18.00 NA 200 Chad 18.00 NA 201 Cambodia 18.00 NA 202 Canada 18.00 NA 203 Bulgaria 18.00 NA 204 Bhutan 18.00 NA 205 Belarus 18.00 NA 206 Benin 18.00 NA 207 Anguilla 18.00 NA 208 Andorra 18.00 NA 209 Angola 18.00 NA 210 American Samoa 18.00 NA 211 Argentina 18.00 NA 212 Australia 18.00 NA 213 Indonesia 17.00 NA 214 Seychelles 17.00 NA 215 Timor-Leste 17.00 NA 216 Sudan 17.00 NA 217 Korea, North 17.00 NA 218 Austria 16.00 NA 219 Isle of Man 16.00 NA 220 Jersey 16.00 NA 221 Nicaragua 16.00 NA 222 Guernsey 16.00 NA 223 Cuba 16.00 NA

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Rank code: 2124

Country Comparison :: Telephone system

This entry includes a brief general assessment of the system with details on the domestic and international components. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry: Arabsat - Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). Autodin - Automatic Digital Network (US Department of Defense). CB - citizen's band mobile radio communications. Cellular telephone system - the telephones in this system are radio transceivers, with each instrument having its own private radio frequency and sufficient radiated power to reach the booster station in its area (cell), from which the telephone signal is fed to a telephone exchange. Central American Microwave System - a trunk microwave radio relay system that links the countries of Central America and Mexico with each other. Coaxial cable - a multichannel communication cable consisting of a central conducting wire, surrounded by and insulated from a cylindrical conducting shell; a large number of telephone channels can be made available within the insulated space by the use of a large number of carrier frequencies. Comsat - Communications Satellite Corporation (US). DSN - Defense Switched Network (formerly Automatic Voice Network or Autovon); basic general-purpose, switched voice network of the Defense Communications System (US Department of Defense). Eutelsat - European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Paris). Fiber-optic cable - a multichannel communications cable using a thread of optical glass fibers as a transmission medium in which the signal (voice, video, etc.) is in the form of a coded pulse of light. GSM - a global system for mobile (cellular) communications devised by the Groupe Special Mobile of the pan-European standardization organization, Conference Europeanne des Posts et Telecommunications (CEPT) in 1982. HF - high frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to 30,000-kHz range. Inmarsat - International Maritime Satellite Organization (London); provider of global mobile satellite communications for commercial, distress, and safety applications at sea, in the air, and on land. Intelsat - International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Washington, DC). Intersputnik - International Organization of Space Communications (Moscow); first established in the former Soviet Union and the East European countries, it is now marketing its services worldwide with earth stations in North America, Africa, and East Asia. Landline - communication wire or cable of any sort that is installed on poles or buried in the ground. Marecs - Maritime European Communications Satellite used in the Inmarsat system on lease from the European Space Agency. Marisat - satellites of the Comsat Corporation that participate in the Inmarsat system. Medarabtel - the Middle East Telecommunications Project of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) providing a modern telecommunications network, primarily by microwave radio relay, linking Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen; it was initially started in Morocco in 1970 by the Arab Telecommunications Union (ATU) and was known at that time as the Middle East Mediterranean Telecommunications Network. Microwave radio relay - transmission of long distance telephone calls and television programs by highly directional radio microwaves that are received and sent on from one booster station to another on an optical path. NMT - Nordic Mobile Telephone; an analog cellular telephone system that was developed jointly by the national telecommunications authorities of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). Orbita - a Russian television service; also the trade name of a packet-switched digital telephone network. Radiotelephone communications - the two-way transmission and reception of sounds by broadcast radio on authorized frequencies using telephone handsets. PanAmSat - PanAmSat Corporation (Greenwich, CT). SAFE - South African Far East Cable Satellite communication system - a communication system consisting of two or more earth stations and at least one satellite that provide long distance transmission of voice, data, and television; the system usually serves as a trunk connection between telephone exchanges; if the earth stations are in the same country, it is a domestic system. Satellite earth station - a communications facility with a microwave radio transmitting and receiving antenna and required receiving and transmitting equipment for communicating with satellites. Satellite link - a radio connection between a satellite and an earth station permitting communication between them, either one-way (down link from satellite to earth station - television receive-only transmission) or two-way (telephone channels). SHF - super high frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to 30,000-MHz range. Shortwave - radio frequencies (from 1.605 to 30 MHz) that fall above the commercial broadcast band and are used for communication over long distances. Solidaridad - geosynchronous satellites in Mexico's system of international telecommunications in the Western Hemisphere. Statsionar - Russia's geostationary system for satellite telecommunications. Submarine cable - a cable designed for service under water. TAT - Trans-Atlantic Telephone; any of a number of high-capacity submarine coaxial telephone cables linking Europe with North America. Telefax - facsimile service between subscriber stations via the public switched telephone network or the international Datel network. Telegraph - a telecommunications system designed for unmodulated electric impulse transmission. Telex - a communication service involving teletypewriters connected by wire through automatic exchanges. Tropospheric scatter - a form of microwave radio transmission in which the troposphere is used to scatter and reflect a fraction of the incident radio waves back to earth; powerful, highly directional antennas are used to transmit and receive the microwave signals; reliable over-the-horizon communications are realized for distances up to 600 miles in a single hop; additional hops can extend the range of this system for very long distances. Trunk network - a network of switching centers, connected by multichannel trunk lines. UHF - ultra high frequency; any radio frequency in the 300- to 3,000-MHz range. VHF - very high frequency; any radio frequency in the 30- to 300-MHz range.

Rank country Telephone system Date of Information

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Rank code: 2125

Country Comparison :: Terrain