Nation to narrow digital divide, boost telecom universal services

China will pour more resources into promoting telecom universal services, as part of a massive push to reduce the digital divide between rural and urban residents, the country's top industry regulator said on Thursday.

Zhang Feng, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said telecommunication universal service embodies the fundamental rights and interests of all citizens in a country. It has been included in the supreme values upheld by the telecommunications sector for over 10 decades.

"So far, 98 percent of China's administrative villages have been covered by the 4G network and optical network, offering an effective way for rural residents to enjoy remote education, internet medical services, e-commerce and other internet-enabled services," Zhang said.

According to him, more efforts will be made to deepen the coverage of the network. Cyberspace should be considered as a community of shared future for all humankind. Governments should scale up policy support to encourage telecom operators in actively enhancing the joint construction and coverage of broadband networks in rural, remote, difficult and unserved areas.

Starting from the end of 2015, the central government and telecom carriers including China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, have invested more than 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) in total in three rounds of pilot projects to expand optical networks to 130,000 administrative villages, including 43,000 poor villages.

"We also need to ramp up efforts to accelerate the pace of technological innovation to power more internet applications in rural areas, with the focus on exploring more ways to help rural children access quality education," Zhang added.

Data from the International Telecommunication Union show that 159 countries have listed universal telecom services as part of their plans to promote broadband coverage.

Zhao Houlin, secretary-general of International Telecommunication Union, said China is a pioneer in reducing the digital divide, with a strong input of resources to ensure that more people can access fast, affordable mobile communication and broadband network services.

The International Telecommunication Union drafted the Dunhuang Initiative on Thursday, calling for more countries and regions to promote internet connectivity.

Chen Zhongyue, deputy general manager of China Telecom, said the telecom carrier has been working hard to build better telecom infrastructure to help people in remote mountainous regions and districts enjoy fast internet services.

In Gansu province alone, the company has invested 1.9 billion yuan since 2016 to help reduce poverty through building more 4G base stations in rural areas. Currently, 96 percent of poverty-stricken administrative villages in Gansu has been covered by 4G signals and 99 percent have been covered by the optical network.