IT, telecoms costs dive

CHINA’S Internet and telecommunications prices almost halved in the first six months of the year and speeds improved, a change expected to drive consumption, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday.

Mobile data costs dropped 46.2 percent year on year. Carriers also cut all national roaming data fees from this month.

As of the end of July, 53.4 percent of families have a broadband bandwidth of 100 megabytes per second or faster, which supports advanced services such as 4K video streaming, the ministry said during a conference broadcast online.

With improved infrastructure, the Internet service industry’s revenue jumped 22.8 percent in the first half year on year. The convergence between IT and the industrial, medical and education sectors has continued, as well as innovations in ecommerce, mobile payment and the shared economy, the ministry said.

At the recent release of its new Nova 3 model, Huawei said it had sold more than 100 million smartphones globally so far this year. China’s smartphone market leader said it expected to sell 200 million units this year.

Carriers, equipment vendors and smartphone makers are testing next-generation 5G technology, which offers 20 to 50 times faster mobile Internet access. China produced 85 billion integrated circuit units in the first half, up 15 percent from a year ago. The chip design, manufacturing and assembly sectors also grew rapidly, the ministry said.