Off the wire
• China verifying reports on new Myanmar shells falling into territory  • Hundreds of Belgians in Syria aiding extremist group  • Cambodia arrests fugitive Russian tycoon Sergei Polonsky  • 2nd LD-Writethru China focus: Chinese premier says talks with India's Modi "meet expectations," 24 deals signed  • China, ROK, Japan hold anti-terrorism consultation in Beijing  • Across China: Fruit farmers harvesting profits through e-commerce  • Weather forecast for major Chinese cities, regions -- May 15  • Weather forecast for world cities -- May 15  • Clash leaves 18 militants dead in N. Afghanistan  • Indian stocks close higher  
You are here: 　 Home

1st LD-Writethru: China pledges faster and cheaper Internet

Xinhua, May 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) pledged to elevate the country's broadband speed and coverage, and slash Internet service prices on Friday.

By the end of this year, the average broadband speed for users in major municipalities and provincial capitals will be increased to 20 megabytes per second (Mbps) from the current 9 Mbps, said Shang Bing, the MIIT's deputy minister. Other urban areas will be improved to 10 Mbps from the current 7 Mbps.

According to Shang, average charges for mobile phone Internet and fixed broadband should be decreased by at least 30 percent from the previous year by the end of this year.

Infrastructure is key to improving speed.

More than 1.30 million 4G base stations will be built in urban and most of the rural areas by the year end.

The MIIT said by the end of 2017, telecom enterprises will have invested more 1.1 trillion yuan (179.74 billion U.S. dollars) to upgrade China's Internet infrastructure. Optical broadband speeds of 100 megabytes per second (Mbps) will be available to almost all urban families, and average broadband speed will reach 30 Mbps in major cities.

In order to tackle high fees, fair competition will be encouraged.

The MIIT demanded a more open market and stricter monitoring of the telecom market in an effort to offer consumers more services and cheaper prices. Pilot broadband access will be expanded to over 30 cities and 100 enterprises by the year end.

China's top three telecom operators, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom all responded to the MIIT, announcing specific measures for raising speed and lowering prices.

Average cable broadband speeds will be promoted to 20 Mbps from the current 11 Mbps, and prices will be reduced by around 35 percent by the end of this year, China Telecom announced.

The company promised to launch cheaper 4G data packages, lower its international roaming data fees, and allow users to continue to use the leftover mobile phone traffic in the following months, which was unimaginable in the past.

China Mobile promised to lower its data fees by around 35 percent by the year end, launch more affordable data packages and innovative services such as allowing data traffic to be shared, exchanged and used without being cleared in the next month.

China Unicom also announced a string of favorable service packages. Meanwhile, the company will reduce the unit data price by more than 20 percent for all its mobile users, and will strive to transform its whole network into optical broadband by the end of 2016.

Since the "Broadband China" strategy was floated in August 2013 by the State Council to boost information consumption and expand broadband coverage across the country, the development of China's broadband network has seen significant improvements.

By the end of March, a total of 290 million families are enjoying easy access to optical broadband network, and over 200 million users are enjoying fixed broadband network. About 2.27 million 3G and 4G base stations have been built to offer services to 640 million mobile broadband users. Endi