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China has announced plans to spend $182 billion over the next 30 months to modernize the nation's network infrastructure:
The State Council, China's chief administrative authority, said the government will invest at least $69.3bn in network construction this year, which in turn will be supplemented with $112.8bn in expenditure before the end of 2017, all in order to accelerate the construction of fiber optic networks and 4G networks.
The state investment follows Li Keqiang, the State Council Premier, announcing China's "Internet Plus" policy, which is intended to see the nation focus on domestic technology adoption in order to boost domestic growth while also giving Chinese technology firms a chance do do better overseas.
Complaining about China's internet speeds previously, Keqiang undershot the Network Readiness Index [which ranks China 62nd], instead seemingly favouring Akamai's State of the Internet: Q4 2014 report [Subscription required], stating that "China has more cellphone users than any other country, but its net service speed ranks below 80th in the world due to underdeveloped information infrastructure".
The State Council has said: "By the end of 2017, all households in locations above prefecture level will have access to 100 Mbps fiber optic networks, over 80 per cent of villages will be covered by fiber optic networks, all cities and villages will be covered by 4G networks, and broadband speeds in municipalities and provincial capitals will reach 30 Mbps."
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday May 22 2015, @02:30AM
Which roughly means by the end of 2015 (just 7 months from now!), the same urban locations would have 80% covered with access to 100Mbps fiber. THIS is much more concrete than some plans 2.5 years away!
When the Chinese government says this sort of thing will happen, does it actually happen? Or are these announcements just forgotten about?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khchung on Friday May 22 2015, @02:45AM
You can expect these things will happen, barring some great unpredictable disasters (like great floods, earthquakes, financial crisis, war, etc), especially when the announcement came from that high in the government.
BUT, you can also expect some of the regional offices to fudge some of the numbers to "make their target". So, on the balance, you can reasonably expect it would be achieved in most areas.
With the target date only 7 months away, I would guess the current state should be not very far from 80% already.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 22 2015, @02:46AM
We can be pretty confident that $182 billion will be spent. 👌💰🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @03:09AM
Might as well spend it on stuff like this.
I hope they succeed on their massive nuclear power station initiative (might have a disaster or two- esp if there's a big earthquake).
Once they have that they can wind down the coal power plants and stop poisoning themselves (and others) so much.
high speed comms + cleaner electricity + farmland getting less polluted.