A  worker performs routine maintenance at a communication base  station in China's Shanxi Province. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By WANG Xiaoxia   

    All of China's administrative villages had broadband network services by the end of November 2021, bringing great convenience to residents in rural areas and providing solid support for China's rural vitalization and modernization.

    To narrow the digital divide between urban and rural areas, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) jointly worked out a compensation mechanism for telecommunication services in 2015.

    Since then, the country has allocated more than 22 billion RMB (about 3.46 billion USD) to support the building of communication networks in rural and remote regions, according to Zou Suping, an official with the MOF.

    Optical fiber networks have been constructed in 130,000 administrative villages with 60,000 4G base stations, said Tian Yulong, chief engineer from the MIIT.

    Efforts have been made to ensure the affordability of Internet services and promote the development of rural area.

    State-owned telecommunication enterprises offered favorable discounts for rural residents, which has benefited more than 28 million rural households who had been lifted out of poverty. It takes only 30 to 40 RMB (around six USD) to cover the mobile Inernet, family broadband and Internet TV services for each household.

    Rural residents can download files at a rate of 100Mb/s, equal to that in the cities, sharing the welfare brought by the development of cyber technology.

    Primary and secondary schools in rural areas are almost all connected to the Internet. Online education has played a vital role during the pandemic, and telemedicine has effectively consolidated medical services in rural areas, said Tian.

    The application of broadband services accelerates the upgrading of agricultural industries in rural areas. People who have been lifted out of poverty are embarking on a new journey to prosperity.

    Online retail sales of agricultural products nationwide exceeded 300 billion RMB (over 47 billion USD) in the first three quarters of 2021, up 1.5 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

    Tian added that in the future, local governments will promote the wider application of the Internet and facilitate its in-depth integration with e -commerce, tourism and agriculture.