China to improve Internet infrastructure

BEIJING -- China vowed to step up Internet infrastructure construction in 2015.

Another 80 million homes will be hooked up to fiber optic connections and more than 600,000 base stations will be built nationwide to extend the 4G network so that it covers all counties and developed towns, the minister of industry of information technology, Miao Wei, said on Thursday.

Network improvements and cutting the price of Internet access will stimulate new businesses and boost tertiary sectors, including e-commerce and Internet finance, said Shi Xiansheng, deputy secretary general of the Internet Society of China.

Miao expects the improvements will stimulate a fresh growth point for the economy. China's information consumption topped 2.8 trillion yuan ($458 billion) in 2014, up 18 percent from a year ago.