Broadband network expansion in the pipeline

China is expected to have 20 million new broadband Internet subscribers this year and a total of 250 million subscribers by the end of 2015, the country's top industry regulator said on Friday.

"The nation needs to improve broadband speed. Our aim is to install fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband connections for 35 million families this year," said Industry and Information Technology Minister Miao Wei.

The announcement came after an investigation of two domestic telecom giants over alleged monopolistic practices in November.

The broadband development plan is a part of China's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), which is to increase the country's average broadband speed to 20 megabytes per second by the end of 2015.

China had 156 million Internet broadband users in 2011, 83 percent of the users' Internet speed exceeding 2MB/s. About 45 million families were covered by the FTTH network, and the Internet surfing fee decreased by 30 percent compared with 2005.

However, Wu Hequan, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in an earlier report that the average download speed of China's broadband is 1.15MB/s, half of the global speed.

China's three telecom carriers will implement the plan and invest more in the industry.

As the major provider of China's Internet broadband infrastructure, China Telecom will invest 40 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) to build the FTTH network this year, and attract 25 million new FTTH users, bringing the total number to 55 million, said Wang Xiaochu, chairman of China Telecom.

Xi Guohua, China Mobile's new chairman, said the company has built a broadband network for 4,100 villages and that number is expected to reach more than 8,000 by the end of this year. He also said the company will add 1.4 million WLAN wireless hotspots this year, and 1.2 million new Internet users.

China Unicom has more than 44 million broadband users, 90 percent of them connected at more than 2MB/s. The company has injected 60 billion yuan into broadband development in the past three years, said its Chairman Chang Xiaobing.

Sixteen Internet giants, including Baidu and Sina, attended the meeting and promised to improve their services online.

tuoyannan@chinadaily.com.cn