China to further boost telecommunications industry in 2011-2015

China will continue to boost the rapid development of its telecommunications industry and construct key network infrastructure in its 12th Five-Year Program period (2011-2015), said an official of the department of communications development of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
In the 2006 to 2010 period, China’s telecommunications industry initiated 3G network construction and 3G business operations, promoted the industrialization and commercialization of TD technology, its own 3G standard, and moved further towards complete market competition.
According to statistics released by the MIIT, main operating revenues of telecom business in China topped 860 billion yuan in 2009, the number of phone users reached 1.061 billion, and Internet user numbers hit 384 million, accomplishing the development goals for 2006-2010.
Besides this, by 2009, China had an 8.27 million km optical cable communications network, including 840,000 km of toll cables.
The Chinese government issued the licenses for 3G mobile telecom business operation in January 2009, and 3G networks now cover the whole country. Besides, mobile Internet is showing robust development, and the Internet generally is available to more people.
In 2006-2010, China’s main telecom companies accumulatively invested nearly 1.5 trillion yuan, strongly boosting economic growth.
Annual growth of the telecom business revenue reached 9.2 percent, and its annual direct contribution to GDP averaged 1.8 percent.
Direct investment in 3G services topped 160.9 billion yuan in 2009, yielding GDP growth of 34.3 billion yuan, and creating 260,000 jobs.
A new economic paradigm based on information and telecommunications network is becoming a fresh driving force of the national economy. In 2008, the market size of Internet services approached 150 billion yuan.
By the end of 2009, the penetration of mobile phones in China reached 56.3 percent, and that of the mobile Internet, 28.9 percent.
Charge rates for telecommunications services dropped 31.6 percent from 2005.
The official said that China had great success in constructing and developing the telecommunications industry in 2006-2010. The country would speed up the construction of infrastructure, namely fiber-optic broadband networks, next-generation Internet, and 3G communications networks in the coming years.
Meanwhile, in 2011-2015, China would boost the wider application of information network and technologies, develop the digital content industry, promote intelligent applications, push the convergence of the Internet, telecom, and broadcasting networks, and boost the economic growth of the information network industry.
Moreover, China would do more to popularize the telecom services in rural regions, particularly the Internet and broadband services, and strengthen the security of network information.
Article via TMCnet