[3] In 2003, China Telecom acquired businesses in Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, as well as other assets for CN¥46 billion.

[3] In 2004, it acquired businesses in Hubei, Hunan, Hainan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang and other assets for CN¥27.8 billion.

[3][8] China Telecom was among six state-owned companies that built the communications infrastructure and assisted in financing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Connecting Every Village Project, which began in 2004.

[26] China Telecom, in partnership with Vodafone, was one of the bidders for a license in the newly opened mobile telecommunications market in Myanmar.

[28] The same year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoked China Telecom's operating license in the U.S. for national security reasons.

[30] In March 2022, the FCC designated China Telecom (Americas) Corp a national security threat.

The FCC previously found that China Telecom used Border Gateway Protocol vulnerabilities to misroute U.S. internet traffic on at least six occasions.

[32] In December 2024, the United States Department of Commerce moved to crack down on China Telecom's cloud and internet routing business in the U.S.[33]