China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog reports that China’s telecom users kept expanding in 2012 with phone users across the country totaling 1.39 billion, up 9.4 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a recent report.

Mobile phones users exceeded 1.1 billion in 2012, with 3G users accounting for 20 percent.

Broadband users with speeds of 4 Mbps or above made up 63 percent of the total, the report said.

More than 10,000 villages were added into the country’s telephone coverage and 19,000 more villages had broadband services in 2012.

Telephone services now cover 95.2 percent of China’s villages and broadband services cover 87.9 percent of China’s villages.

China Watch Blog has learnt that China will take greater strides in promoting the development of its mobile Internet sector.

Wang Xiujun, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said that the government will step up policy support for mobile Internet because it “promotes industrial integration and leads to revolutionary changes in development and technology.”

Wang said the country will speed up comprehensive upgrades for its information networks and boost the development of third-generation technology (3G), especially homegrown TD variants of 3G and LTE (long-term evolution) technology.

Along with the development of information networks, the innovation and development of integrated technologies and businesses should also be highlighted, Wang said during the ongoing fifth International Mobile Internet Conference, which opened Monday in Beijing.

Wang said that the Chinese government will attach more importance to the protection of users’ personal information and their rightful interests and maintain a healthy environment for the development of the mobile Internet sector.

The two-day meeting is sponsored by China Mobile, the world’s largest telecommunications firm by number of users.