Internet 50 or 100 times faster than current speeds will be available in Shanghai next year and cover 10 million families nationwide by 2010, government officials said yesterday.

The technology, called 3TNET, will be available in the Yangtze River Delta region soon. Previously, thousands of families tested it in Shanghai's Changning District and Pudong New Area, said the Ministry of Science and Technology and the local government.

Using the high-performance broadband network, people can access interactive services including high-quality Internet-protocol TV, remote medical and education access, and video-on-demand, according to the developer,  the Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Broadband Technologies & Application (B-STAR).

At present, broadband speeds are around 1 or 2 megabytes per second (Mbps), 3TNET's speed is 100Mbps or higher. 3TNET delivers information through fiber optics and requires huge investment on network upgrades, therefore it will be available in new communities first.

The Ministry of Science and Technology and the city government expressed satisfaction with the achievements of a ministry-and-city cooperation program, in place since 2004, and signed off a new round of cooperative projects at yesterday's meeting.

"Many high-end technologies will be introduced to the city by 2010 to help promote the Expo," said Shen Xiaoming, vice mayor of Shanghai. "Solar-energy powered buildings, environmentally friendly vehicles and ticketing systems in the Expo zone as well as projects on anti-terrorism, food safety and public safety issues such as epidemic disease prevention and control will all be showcased at the Expo."

Shanghai will also be the location for key national projects such as the construction of a base for deep-sea technology research.

(Shanghai Daily November 4, 2008)