Off the wire
• China to continue higher-level opening up: premier  • S. Africa recognizes Barrow as Gambia's legitimate president  • 2nd LD Writethru: 2 killed in bomb attack on sport fans in Afghanistan  • Chinese comedian Zhou Libo arrested in Long Island for allegedly possessing gun, drug  • Britain's Hammond calls for strong trade bonds with EU post-Brexit  • ASEAN agree to develop a joint declaration on cruise tourism  • Gov't forces on counter-offensive against IS in eastern Syria  • Interview: Russian industrialist says China's supply-side reform supports global commodity prices  • Feature: Top Soya award to spur Kenyan star Cheruiyot in marathon career  • Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Jan. 20  
You are here: 　 Home

China's fiber optic network reaches 82 pct rural villages

Xinhua, January 21, 2017 Adjust font size:

The fiber optic network in China now covers more than 82 percent of the country's rural villages, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which aims to raise coverage to 90 percent in the second half of 2017.

As of November 2016, more than 61 million rural households had access to the fiber optic network, an impressive 90 percent increase from the previous year, said MIIT general engineer Zhang Feng at a ministerial workshop held in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Friday.

In 2016, China began the huge task of installing fiber optic in more than 100,000 villages across the country, including 31,000 villages considered in poor conditions.

The campaign was financed by 30 billion yuan (4.4 billion U.S. dollars) of public and private sector funding.

The ministry will install fiber optics in 30,000 more villages this year.

The installation of broadband Internet will allow villagers to access e-commerce, online healthcare, online education, and online agriculture, Zhang said. Endi