Fast Internet to create ‘Smart City’

Some 6.5 million households across the city will have access to fiber optic Internet service by the end of the year, with roughly a third of them expected to take advantage of the service that is faster than the city's existing broadband connection, Shanghai's main Internet provider said Tuesday.

The move aims to push the city to the forefront of the nation's Smart City project, which was launched by local government officials last year with the aim of providing Chinese cities with a speedy Internet connection capable of competing with international cities by 2015.

"The fast and constant Internet access will allow people to appreciate more conveniences," Xia Yuzhong, an officer for Pudong New Area's informatization department, which launched a detailed plan of how the district would achieve its goals for the project Tuesday, told the Global Times.

Included in the plan are 20 "smart communities," which are essentially meant to give residential areas access to telecommunication bundle services by the end of the year, including online security protection features, via the installation of a network control system that would extend Internet connection to some 1 million public transport vehicles, including city buses, long-distance buses and school buses, as well as complete fiber optic network coverage for 100 select primary school and high schools.

The best part is that the Internet upgrade will come at an affordable cost to local residents, Shanghai Telecom promised Tuesday. Promotional discounts to be on offer from April 1 are predicted to benefit some 600,000 local residents and 100,000 enterprises, it said.

Meanwhile, another 2,700 Wifi hotspots for local industrial zones and commercial hubs are also slated for completion with Internet connection speeds designed to run up to 54 Mbps by the end of the year, Shanghai Telecom said.

Since the Smart City project took off, Shanghai has managed to equip some 4.5 million households with fiber optic Internet connections, a service that some 1.3 million household began using at the end of last year - and an achievement that awarded the city with "The First Fiber Networks City of China" title.

Another 51 main industrial parks in the city last year were likewise given Wifi and fiber optic Internet networks, following a similar move at local airports, railway stations, long-distance bus stations and major stadiums in recent years.

Local telecom providers have also contributed to Smart City initiatives. Most recently, Shanghai Mobile developed a "Wireless Financial City" in Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone at the end of last year, which equipped the area with online platform capabilities for mobile phones.