East China's Jiangsu has become the first province to provide broadband Internet service for all villages.

The achievement was announced Tuesday by the provincial communication administration and the Jiangsu division of China Telecom.

Access for all 150,548 villages means that broadband Internet service covered every corner of the province, said Gao Tongqing, general manager of the division. "Information technology is a must to balance urban and rural development," said Gao.

Gao said the company had invested 1.2 billion yuan (176 million U.S. dollars) this year to upgrade its broadband network.

China's online population has exceeded 316 million, of whom 91 percent had broadband connections, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2009)