The number of Chinese broadband users has hit 122 million, the
highest in the world, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, citing
an official from the information industry authority.
Sixty percent of the netizens surfed on the Internet via
broadband, said Jiang Yaoping, vice minister of the ministry of
information industry, at a work conference of China
Telecommunications Corporation on Saturday.
Last year, more than 30 percent of China Telecom's income came
from non-phone services, rising from 5.5 percent in 2002, the
report said.
One-third of the new broadband users are farmers, where the
demand for the service is high, China Telecom officials said.
The increased user number boosted the non-voice income of
fixed-phone carriers, accelerating the transformation of
traditional phone carriers into comprehensive information service
providers, the report said.
(Shanghai Daily December 24, 2007)
