Shanghai to be world’s first city to provide gigabit broadband

China’s economic megacity Shanghai is going to create a complete gigabit broadband grid by 2018, making it the first city with full gigabit broaband coverage, according to the East Day, a Shanghai-based online news portal who posted the story on Saturday.

The Shanghai Company of China Telecom, one of the triple leading telecommunication services in the country, will invest one billion yuan (approximately 148 million US dollars) in the layout of the broadband and in devices’ capacity expansion.

Based on a trial last year, China Telecom Shanghai will enable nearly 270 residential areas to have access to gigabit broadband by the end of this year, which numerically means people in Shanghai will be able to download at an average rate of 100Mbit/s, much higher than the current 13Mbit/s.

The highest rate of gigabit broadband is expected to be 1024Mbps, allowing people to download a 2GB movie in 16 seconds. Such a high speed will also be conducive to the wide application of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), a system through which television services are delivered by using the Internet protocol suite, home security, and smart furniture.

China Telecom Shanghai has introduced the top-speed broadband to 16 residential areas in the city, covering 12,000 users so far. Three years later, the whole city will benefit from the highest speeds of broadband.