China to improve rural broadband coverage over next five years

China is planning to expand broadband Internet coverage to more of its vast rural areas during the country's 12the Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), an official said in Urumqi Monday.

Xi Guohua, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said at a conference that China aims to increase broadband Internet access in rural areas, making it available to 95 percent of the country's administrative villages by the end of 2015. Eighty percent of China's administrative villages have broadband access at the present time.

The Chinese government also plans to expand telephone service to all villages with more than 20 households during the same period, according to Xi.

Due to environmental and infrastructure-related issues, there are still hundreds of thousands of villages in China that do not have access to telephone services, he said.

China will establish a long-term system that will boost the development of rural communication networks with government financial support over the next five years, he added.

By the end of 2010, all of China's administrative villages and 94 percent of villages with more than 20 households had access to telephone services.

Source: Xinhua

	Weekly review     April 20   Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail to remove luxury seats   April 18   China undergoing shift into nation of consumers April 18   Zhejiang checks food, raids illegal bun makers April 19   SASS: Chinese students mentally healthier than Asian peers April 23   The week in pictures April 19   Build legal bulwark against moral decline April 21   'China model' 30 years on: from home to abroad April 21   Piano student's bloody crime heart-wrenching in China April 18   China places firmer lid on home prices April 19   China puts brake on economic bullet train