The opening test of the 13th Five-Year Plan: the popularization of broadband network technology is accelerating

The 13th Five-Year Plan outlines arrangements for implementing the strategy of strengthening the country and expanding cyberspace, and proposes to accelerate the construction of a high-speed, mobile, and secure new generation of information technology infrastructure. In 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology continued to work with relevant departments to implement the "Broadband China" special action, optimize and improve broadband development policies, guide enterprises to increase broadband construction investment and broadband application innovation, promote the rapid development of broadband network technology applications in my country, and significantly enhance comprehensive strength.

my country's network capacity has been greatly improved, and fiber-optic networks and 4G networks covering urban and rural areas have been basically built. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of December 15 this year, more than 100 cities have built optical networks, accounting for about one-third of my country's prefecture-level cities; the task of promoting fiber-optic access to 50,000 administrative villages proposed in the "Government Work Report" has also been completed ahead of schedule. In terms of 4G networks, 696,000 new 4G base stations have been built, reaching a total of 2.467 million, accounting for more than half of the world's 4G base stations, and the world's largest 4G network has been built within two years. According to the third quarter "China Broadband Popularization Status Report" released by the Broadband Development Alliance, as of the third quarter of 2016, the penetration rate of fixed broadband households in my country reached 59.6%, and the penetration rate of mobile broadband users reached 67.7%, and broadband popularization has achieved significant results.

On the other hand, network speed has doubled, and the proportion of high-speed broadband users has reached the world's leading level. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of December 15 this year, the average access speed of fixed broadband reached 42Mbps, more than twice that of the end of 2015; the proportion of fiber-optic broadband users reached 72%, an increase of 16 percentage points from the end of 2015. In terms of mobile broadband, 4G users accounted for 54% of mobile users, far exceeding the global average of 20%.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Information and Communication Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, this year, in order to increase speed and reduce fees and improve network service capabilities, in terms of fixed broadband, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued the optical network city standard, guided local governments and enterprises to step up efforts to improve optical fiber in old communities, and promoted the implementation of the national standard of fiber to the home; increased the construction of Internet backbone direct connection points, lowered the settlement price between networks for four consecutive years, and continuously expanded the bandwidth of network interconnection. In terms of mobile broadband, enterprises are encouraged to adopt new technologies such as 4G+ and VoLTE (4G voice) to accelerate network coverage and improve user service experience.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also jointly organized a pilot program for universal telecommunications services with the Ministry of Finance to make up for the shortcomings in rural broadband development. In 2016, two batches of universal telecommunications service pilot programs were organized and carried out, with a total of 8.7 billion yuan of central fiscal funds allocated to support the fiber-optic access and upgrading of about 100,000 administrative villages. Through the guidance of central fiscal funds, it has driven corporate investment and promoted local governments to introduce support policies such as rewards instead of subsidies and broadband development city and county assessments, jointly accelerating rural broadband construction and helping to fight poverty.

my country also actively promotes effective competition in the broadband market and gives play to the market mechanism to promote broadband speed-up. On the one hand, China Mobile and radio and television enterprises are encouraged to enter the fixed broadband market to compete, and China Telecom and China Unicom are encouraged to leverage the power of tower companies to rapidly deploy and build 4G networks on a large scale; on the other hand, private capital is encouraged to enter the telecommunications field to participate in competition, continue to promote mobile communications resale business, further expand the scope of broadband access network business pilots, and give full play to the vitality of private capital. Through multi-subject and multi-level competition, telecommunications companies have launched a number of speed-up measures.

To ensure the implementation of measures such as broadband speed increase and fee reduction, in May and November this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in conjunction with the General Office's Inspection Office and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, organized nationwide special inspections, deployed local governments and enterprises to conduct in-depth self-inspections, strengthened reporting and rectification within the industry, and supervised the implementation of supporting policies in various regions and speed-up measures of various enterprises to continuously improve user service experience.

The relevant person in charge of the Information and Communications Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that it is necessary to continue to accelerate the construction of the new generation of information technology infrastructure, promote the development and commercialization of 5G, vigorously develop the industrial Internet, coordinate the promotion of the commercialization and deployment of the next generation of the Internet, and actively deploy a wide coverage, large connection, low power consumption, and low-cost Internet. Steadily promote the opening of the telecommunications market to other state-owned capital and private capital, accelerate the supervision and law enforcement of monopoly and unfair competition, promote enterprises to accelerate industry self-discipline, deepen the joint construction and sharing of telecommunications infrastructure, and promote the inclusion of telecommunications infrastructure in local construction guarantees.