Telecommunications in Equatorial Guinea include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.

Radio and television

Radio stations Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio sta ...

: ** 1 state-owned radio station, and 1 private radio station owned by the president's eldest son; transmissions of multiple international broadcasters are accessible (2007);"Communications: Equatorial Guinea"
''World Factbook'', U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 27 January 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2014. ** no AM, 3 FM, and 5 shortwave stations (2001)."Communications: Equatorial Guinea"
''World Factbook'', U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 8 March 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2014 via Internet Archive. *

Radios Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...

: 180,000 (1997). *

Television stations A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ear ...

: ** 1 state-owned TV station; satellite TV service is available; transmissions of multiple international broadcasters are accessible (2007); ** 1 TV station (2001). *

Television set A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...

s: 4,000 (1997). The state maintains direct or indirect control of all broadcast media. The government owns the only national radio and television broadcast system, RTVGE. The president's eldest son owns the only private radio station. Satellite broadcasts are widely available, including the French language Africa24 television news channel that occasionally carries opposition criticism. Foreign channels, including Radio France International (RFI) and the BBC World Service, were broadcast uncensored throughout the country.

Telephones

* Calling code: +240 *

International call prefix An international call prefix, international dial-out code or international direct dial code (IDD code) is a trunk prefix that indicates an international phone call. In the dialling sequence, the prefix precedes the country calling code (and, fur ...

: 00 * Land lines: ** 14,900 lines in use, 195th in the world (2012); ** 10,000 lines in use, 204th in the world (2008). * Mobile cellular: ** 501,000 lines, 169th in the world (2012); ** 346,000 lines, 165th in the world (2008). * Telephone system: digital fixed-line network in most major urban areas and good mobile coverage; fixed-line density is about 2 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular subscribership has been increasing and in 2011 stood at about 60 percent of the population; international communications from Bata and the capital, Malabo, to African and European countries (2011). * Satellite earth stations: 1 Intelsat (

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

) (2011). * Communications cables: Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable system, links countries along the west coast of Africa to each other and on to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Internet

Top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...

.gq .gq is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Equatorial Guinea. Freenom relaunched the TLD on October 1, 2014, and domains became available for free on January 1, 2015. The .gq registry allows the creation of emoji domain names. Histo ...

Internet users The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

: ** 95,649 users, 169th in the world; 13.9% of the population, 158th in the world (2012);Calculated using penetration rate and population data fro
"Countries and Areas Ranked by Population: 2012"
, Population data, International Programs, U.S. Census Bureau, retrieved 26 June 2013"Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000-2012"
International Telecommunication Union (Geneva), June 2013, retrieved 22 June 2013 ** 14,400 users, 200th in the world (2009). * Fixed broadband: 1,372 subscriptions, 174th in the world; 0.2% of population, 159th in the world (2012)."Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. *

Wireless broadband Wireless broadband is telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area. The term comprises both fixed and mobile broadband. The term broadband Originally the word ...

: Unknown (2012)."Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. * Internet hosts: 7 hosts, 227th in the world (2012). * IPv4: 3,072 addresses allocated, less than 0.05% of the world total, 4.5 addresses per 1000 people (2012).Population

The World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is availabl ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. Accessed on 2 April 2012. Note: Data are mostly for 1 July 2012. *

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

s: 9 ISPs (2009).

Internet censorship and surveillance

There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports the government monitors

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

or Internet

chat rooms The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

without judicial oversight. Most overt criticism of the government comes from the country's community in exile, and the Internet has replaced broadcast media as the primary way opposition views were expressed and disseminated."Equatorial Guinea"
''Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012'', Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 22 March 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2014. Although the constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

, the law grants authorities extensive powers to restrict media activities, which the government uses to limit these rights. While criticism of government policies is allowed, individuals generally can not criticize the president, his family, other high-ranking officials, or the security forces without fear of reprisal. Libel is a criminal offense, but there were no instances of the government using these laws to suppress criticism during 2012. The constitution and law prohibit arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, but the government often does not respect these prohibitions. Search warrants are required unless the crime is in progress or for reasons of national security. Security forces enter homes without authorization and arrest alleged criminals, foreign nationals, and others, often without required judicial orders. The government reportedly attempts to impede criticism by monitoring the activities of the political opposition, journalists, and others. Journalists are subject to surveillance and practice self-censorship.

References

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External links