Qiu Dongping was about 50 kilometers away from his hometown
yesterday, bargaining for affordable computers.
Qiu is head of a large village in the mountainous county of Dapu
in the east of Guangdong Province, home to 2000 people in six
villages.
"The local town government has told me that the broadband
service will be available in my village by early September at the
latest, so my team has decided to buy one or two reasonably priced
PCs to make good use of it," he told China Daily.
"In the coming few weeks, I will learn how to use a computer and
how to produce Internet adverts at an IT learning center in my
county."
He said many of the villagers have been looking forward to the
broadband service as they have been made aware of its benefits by
those studying or working in big cities.
"For one thing, although we live in out-of-the-way mountainous
areas, we don't have to be cut-off from the Internet world," he
said. "Furthermore, we will try to make good use of the Internet
for the promotion of our resources including fruit, beautiful
scenery, fresh air, porcelain and sweet mountain springs."
The new broadband initiative is the latest development in the
province's efforts to better connect rural areas.
Last week, China Telecom's Guangdong branch signed a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) with Guangdong Provincial Information
Industry Department to significantly improve telephone and
broadband services in rural areas.
Under the MOU, the firm will within three years provide
telephone services to each household in villages that have over 20
households, as well as broadband Internet to every large
village.
The firm will spend 800 million yuan (US$100 million) this year
to reach 2,000 villages, an investment that will increase each
year.
Currently more than 8,800 small villages in the province have no
telecoms service, while 7,000 large villages have no broadband.
Chen Qinggong, a middle-aged university teacher in Guangzhou,
was delighted with the news for personal reasons.
"With a telephone service available soon, I'll be able to talk
to my elderly parents often," he said.
Chen's parents live in a very small village in the mountainous
county of Raoping in east Guangdong.
According to Chen Junhua, an official with the provincial
information industry department, the MOU will step up the pace of
"digitalizing Guangdong" in rural areas.
The program was kicked off in 2003 when the provincial
government earmarked 35 million yuan (US$4.32 million) each year
for the next five years.
IT companies such as Intel and TCL are participating in the
program.
Intel, for example, is financing 100 IT learning centers this
year and will train 3000 rural staff. These staff are in turn
expected to teach 1 million rural residents basic computing
skills.
One service proving popular is being run by China Mobile. The
firm provides 3 million rural subscribers with free text
messages.
Ma Weiwen, a middle-aged farmer in a rural town called Feilaixia
in Qingyuan, said these special text messages have become a normal
part of his day.
"The messages are very useful for us, they are teaching us how
to select good seeds, when and how to prevent pests, how to take
better care of fruit trees, how to pick and keep fresh seasonal
fruits like lychees and longan," said Ma.
Ma said he is expecting a bumper harvest of longan, about 3,500
kilograms, later this month.
"I have been learning how to use a computer and how to place ads
online at the IT leaning center in my village." he said. "I'm going
to put the information of my longan on the Internet soon."
(China Daily August 1, 2006)