Mobile technology lifts remote region

Wang said he and his colleagues hope one day the Wireless City portal will become an integral part of Karamay people's lives. "Every morning, when Karamay people get up, the first website he or she will open is the portal, checking things such as weather and transportation. The last web page he or she closes at night will be the portal as well," Wang said.

Although Karamay is a small city with a population of 400,000, the mobile phone penetration rate is about 170 percent, much higher than the nation's average of 70 percent, said Li Wei, general manager of China Mobile's Karamay branch.

"The figure indicates that every Karamay resident owns 1.7 mobile phones. We usually joke that the only people who don't have mobile phones here are newborn babies," Li said. The high usage rate of mobile phones in Karamay is evidence of the city's evolution into a wireless city. Meanwhile, the saturated market also offers impetus for telecom operators to launch in-depth services instead of merely competing for new customers, he added.

Since China Mobile started the Wireless City project in Xinjiang one year ago, 16 cities, including Urumqi, Karamay, Kashi and Altay, have launched similar city-level Wireless City online portals. The cumulative mobile application number has surpassed 700, with an active user base of 200,000 every day.

Bai Zhigang, general manager of China Mobile's Xinjiang subsidiary, said the company had earmarked 2.46 billion yuan this year to continue pushing forward the Wireless City project in the region. As a nationwide program, China Mobile aims to have 50 million users for the Wireless City project by the end of this year, up from 17 million in April.

The Internet of things

Xinjiang is China's largest cotton production base. It has about 24.7 million mu (about 1.6 million hectares) of cotton fields and is expected to produce 3.2 million tons of cotton this year, an estimated increase of 3.6 percent from last year, according to statistics from Xinjiang's development and reform commission. The production is about half of the total national cotton output.

A China Mobile drip irrigation demonstration site in Shihezi, a county in northern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The company launched pilot projects in the county in 2009 because of a severe shortage of water supply in the region. The wireless monitoring and controlling system can identify irrigation quantity and duration based on information it has gathered on soil dampness. [Photo/China Daily]

Enough sunshine and appropriate irrigation are the two most important elements for a good cotton harvest. Sunshine is a natural blessing for Xinjiang people. However, the region faces severe water shortage problems, which requires an advanced irrigation system with a higher water utilization ratio.

China Mobile has launched pilot projects in Shihezi, a county in northern Xinjiang, involving automatic drip irrigation systems since 2009. Incorporated with the Internet of things technology, the system allows users to control irrigation through operating the switches of electromagnetic valves using mobile terminals.

The system can identify irrigation quantity and duration based on information it has gathered on soil dampness. It can also allow for the different irrigation requirements of crops and carry out integrated analysis of the weather, soil dampness, evaporation and rainfall to monitor the growth environment of crops.

Tang Yongzhu, 55, is among thousands of cotton farmers in Shihezi to adopt this irrigation system. Tang owns 60 mu of cotton fields that provide the only source of income for his family. By planting cotton, Tang supported his two sons to go to university and bought a new motorcycle this year. "The system has helped increase cotton production," Tang said as he carefully checked the cotton buds. The average yield has increased by 80 to 100 kilograms per mu under automatic drip irrigation, a delighted Tang added.

In addition, it saves labor since it takes a mere five hours for Tang to complete the irrigation of 60 mu of cotton fields compared with more than 24 hours previously, he said.

Tang Hongzhu, 55, examining his cotton field in Shihezi. Tang owns 60 mu (4 hectares) of cotton fields that provide the only source of income for his family. By planting cotton and benefiting from the drip irrigation, Tang supported his two sons to go to university and bought a new motorcycle this year. [Photo/China Daily]

In Shihezi, automatic irrigation had been brought to nine farms with a total application area of 800,000 mu. By 2015 it is estimated more than 1.3 million mu will have it, said Su Jun, a local water-saving expert.