4M broadband to cover 70 percent of China in 2013

More than 70 percent of China's Internet users will have access to broadband services in 2013, and the Chinese government is looking to increase the number of households with broadband access. 

In a statement released Tuesday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), minister Miao Wei said the percentage of users with access to 4M or faster services rose 23 percentage points to 63 percent in 2012 from the year before.

The nominal speed for 4M broadband is typically claimed to be 512Kbps. 2M broadband is at a nominal speed of 256Kbps.

Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services will cover 35 million households this year, Miao noted, adding that the number of FTTH households grew 49 percent to reach 94 million in 2012.

The Chinese government also is looking to add more than 25 million new fixed-line broadband households. In 2012, the number of households with fixed-line broadband climbed to 175 million from 25.1 million the year before.

Other goals of the ministry include expanding the number of public wireless hotspots by 1.3 million, Miao added.

Last September, the ministry said it was targeting to have 250 million broadband users and raise access speeds in both urban and rural areas, with service coverage hitting 95 percent by end-2015.