Yang Xiaowei, general manager of China Telecom, revealed that China Telecom plans to have 1.15 million 4G base stations in 2017 and they will build the world's first low-frequency 4G network basing on the 800MHz frequency.

Yang made the comments during a terminal industry summit in Chongqing, and the company explained its development plans for 2017 in detail during the meeting.

At the same time, Yang clarified the future development direction of China Telecom. The company will cooperate with the entire industrial chain to establish five major business ecospheres, covering smart connections, smart homes, Internet finance, new ICT services, and Internet of Things. This meshes well with the government's "Internet Plus" strategy espoused by Premier Li Keqiang.

As the company rolls out its smart connections strategy, China Telecom said they will enhance their basic smart connection abilities by construction of 4G networks, optical broadband services, and IoT services.

For smart home services, they aim to have 90 million eSurfing HD users in 2017 and increase the number to over 100 million in 2018. China Telecom will focus on the promotion of 4K HD streaming and to realize full HD in 2018.

As relates to its plans in Internet finance and fintech, China Telecom will invest resources to develop three numbers: they aim to have 40 million active users, over 400,000 active vendors, and over RMB1.2 trillion trade value in 2017.

For new ICT services, the company will use its cloud computing network to achieve resource sharing and benefit sharing. Meanwhile, they will establish an Internet Plus lab to promote the related ecological construction of services around ICT services.

For Internet of Things, China Telecom will invest over CNY100 million for incentive policies to support the development of this sector.