Demand set to grow for faster speeds

Jiading is to develop 300 communities with a gigabit network by the end of this year.

Shanghai Jiading Telecommunications Branch, the service provider, was able to realize 99 percent coverage of optical network facilities within the district since 2009 and now it will set up the gigabit network in the whole region in the next two years.

“When a family watches a 1080P video online, about 8 megabits of data flow is streaming. More will be required if there are several branches of flows being used in the same time. A low band width will not be enough,” said Yang Xiaofan, director of market developing department of the telecommunications branch.

Yang said people will have a higher demand for Internet speed as high-definition technology develops and the applications like 8K livetreaming, online virtual reality games and smart home appliances spread.

Last year, Jiading piloted the gigabit network system in a dozen communities. A third of the 900 communities in the district will be able to enjoy the same high speed network at the end of this year.

Currently there are only a few households registered for the new gigabit network, but Yang expects the number to rise.

“We need time to attract more users, which is also a challenge placed in front of us now,” Yang said.

“But as the infrastructure building finishes in the second half of the year, the number of the users will see a remarkable increase. We will also supplement more content for our gigabit service in the future.”