Lately, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ("MIIT") and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission ("SASAC") have jointly distributed the Implementing Opinions on the Special Program in 2018 to Forge Ahead with the Network Speed Acceleration and Tariff Reduction and Accelerate Developing New Economic Growth Drivers (the "Opinions").
The Opinions map out detailed arrangements for this special program, clearly specifying that efforts will be made to: 1. speed up the evolution and upgrading of the broadband network to the globally advanced level; 2. improve the weakness of the broadband network development, with the focus on the imbalance and inadequacy of such development; 3. satisfy expectations and demands of the general public and enable the public to enjoy benefits of network speed acceleration and tariff reduction as soon as possible; 4. promote the in-depth integration of information and communications technologies and the real economy, with the focus on promoting the economic transformation and upgrading; and 5. constantly optimize the market environment and ensure policies on network speed acceleration and tariff reduction are put in practice. According to the Opinions, actions will be taken to advance the development of the 5-generation (5G) technology industry at a more rapid pace, concretely push for the maturity of the standardization, research and development, application and industry chain relating to the 5G technology and the accompanying guarantee for the safety, organize manpower to carry out the significant special program for the "new generation broadband and wireless mobile communications network", accomplish the third-phase technological research and development and experiments, and facilitate the formation of globally unified 5G standards.