To provide an information communication method and its unit that can select a coding mode providing the least data quantity to an expansion capability of an opposite device in the case of transmission and transmits data coded in the selected coding mode.

The image communication unit has a work RAM 3 that stores compression-coded information, a CODEC 4 that expands the information stored in the work RAM 3 and applies compression coding to the expanded information according to some kinds of coding modes, a CPU 1 that measures a coded data quantity in the case of coding by the CODEC 4, an image RAM 14 that stores the coded data quantity measured by the CPU 1 while linking the quantity to the information by each coding, a network control unit 7 that transmits the information stored in the image RAM 14 to an opposite terminal, and the CPU 1 that retrieves the coded data quantity measured by the CPU 1 and selects the coding system minimizing the expansion capability of the opposite terminal in the case of transmitting the information by the network control unit 7.