Our country is moving from the investment-driven capital economy to the knowledge-driven innovation economy. The telecommunication industry carrying information technology can promote knowledge spillover, accelerate technological innovation and play a crucial role in economic development. This paper employs a three-stage efficiency evaluation model of RAM and SFA to evaluate technical efficiency of telecommunication industry of 31 provinces in China from 2001 to 2013, and then deconstructs the technical efficiency of telecommunication industry from the perspective of “managerial-environmental efficiency”, and further studies the effect of exogenous environmental factors on the technical efficiency. The results show that: (1) there are significant deviations on technical efficiency evaluation of management level of provincial telecommunication industry if the environmental factors and random disturbance are not removed; (2) the technical inefficiency of telecommunication industry in China lies in the dual inefficiency of management and environment, in which the environmental inefficiency is the major factor, and the environmental inefficiency is a common problem faced by all provinces; (3) the interregional and intraregional management efficiency differences have been kept at a low level, while environmental efficiency differences are much greater and tend to expand among provinces in most regions over time; (4) the extensive mode of economic development and government-led infrastructure investment in each region objectively result in environmental inefficiency and environmental efficiency differences among provinces. Therefore, some relevant policy implications are given.
