China to cut mobile internet rates by over 20 percent this year: minister

Workers search for topics of their concerns in the government work report at a textile factory in a high-tech development zone of Hai’an, east China’s Jiangsu province. (Photo by People’s Daily Online)

The average rates for mobile internet services in China will be further reduced by more than 20 percent this year to better meet the growing consumption demands of the people, said Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology. Miao made the remarks during an interview after the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5th, citing a government work report delivered on the meeting. The average broadband service rates for small and medium enterprises will be lowered by another 15 percent, Miao added. He introduced that this year the country would carry out demonstration projects of gigabit broadband services across the country.

In addition, subscribers will be allowed to freely switch networks by the end of 2019, which means mobile users will be able to shift from one operator to another without changing numbers if they are dissatisfied with the original services. Facilitating faster and more affordable internet connection has been incorporated in China’s government work reports for years, attracting high attention from the Chinese citizens. The country has over-fulfilled its targets on internet facilitation it raised in the 2018 government work report ahead of schedule. Last year, the coverage of optical fiber network was expanded to 98 percent among all villages in China. Over 70 percent of Chinese households had access to megabit optical fiber networks by the end of 2018, and the number of mobile phone users of the country has hit 1.56 billion as of the end of this February.

By Huan Xiang

(People’s Daily)