MIIT: Fiber Coverage Reaches 172 Million Households, More Focus on Rural Broadband Deployment

April 23 afternoon news (Zuo Dongdong) At today's press conference on the development of the industrial and communications industry in the first quarter of 2014 held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), MIIT Chief Engineer and Spokesperson Zhang Feng stated that by the end of February this year, the scale of fiber coverage of households in China had reached 172 million, and the next stage will focus more on broadband deployment in the central and western regions and impoverished rural areas.

Zhang Feng stated that since the State Council issued the national "Broadband Strategy" last year, it is now being gradually implemented. This year, MIIT has also proposed a special action for broadband in 2014. He believes that at present, the "Broadband China" strategy is a long-term goal that will be carried out through 2020, with each stage having its own goals and tasks, and rural and urban areas need to be promoted comprehensively. In this regard, MIIT has implemented special broadband actions for three consecutive years.

"At present, including basic enterprises and internet enterprises, the process of broadband speed-up has generally been accelerated, with more focus on the rural areas in the central and western regions. While accelerating development, various regions are also continuously deepening the promotion of fiber-to-the-home. For the development of broadband, we now need to place equal emphasis on wired and wireless approaches. In areas with conditions, optical cables are introduced to the vast rural areas; in areas where conditions are not yet available, we increase network coverage through wireless means."

Zhang Feng stated that by the end of February this year, the scale of fiber coverage of households nationwide had reached 172 million, and the scale of fixed broadband access users nationwide had reached 192 million; at the same time, the proportion of users using bandwidth above 4 Mbps reached 80.5%, including vast rural users. Overall, after the introduction of the Broadband China strategy, various regions have further increased their attention to and investment in broadband network infrastructure construction. Whether in terms of fiber-to-the-home, broadband development, or speed improvement, rapid progress has been made. He also stated that in the next step, MIIT will give more attention to the central and western regions, especially impoverished rural areas.