China’s State Council has unveiled plans to invest CNY140 billion (USD22.0 billion) in expanding broadband network infrastructure in underserved areas of the country by 2020, reports Reuters. Under the plans, 30 million households would have their internet access improved, including some 50,000 villages currently without broadband access. The targets are the latest in a series of investment plans announced this year to help drive China’s digital economy, after Premier Li Keqiang called for operators to lower prices and improve access speeds.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in July this year, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) confirmed that China was looking to invest CNY435 billion in improvements to internet infrastructure by the end of the year – including the deployment and evolution of 4G LTE networks.