Broadband drive makes rural areas prosperous
They planned to help more than 100,000 villages across 27 provinces build or upgrade their telecom infrastructure.
To encourage its subsidiaries to participate in the broadband campaign as well, China Telecom matches the government’s subsidies.
China Unicom, meanwhile, has also asked its branches to actively take part in the drive.
In addition, the three companies have increased supervision of each village-level project.
Their priority now is to set up broadband facilities for villagers and help promote agricultural modernization and information consumption in villages.
In recent years, broadband access has improved in urban areas and developed areas. Among rural families, broadband penetration was 40 percent lower than that of the urban families.
In May, the MIIT and the Ministry of Finance expanded the initiative to cover more villages. This year, about 33,000 villages across 21 provinces will be included in the drive.
Contact the writers at zhengyiran@ chinadaily.com.cn and masi@chinadaily.com.cn