Light-speed communications in tune with nature in Yunnan

(Posted June 2022) Yunnan in southern China is the province with the most biodiversity and greatest number of ethnic minorities.  Endowed with idyllic sceneries, it is home to the famed city of Shangri-La as well as five Unesco World Heritage sites. 

Unsurprisingly, nature preservation is a top concern in Yunnan. 

But so is economic development.  And with optical network technologies, prosperity and environmental preservation don’t need to conflict.

Huawei works with the Yunnan provincial government and China Mobile to implement Digital Yunnan.  The plan calls for communications networks with a latency of 1 millisecond within the provincial capital of Kunming, three milliseconds in the center part of Yunnan, and 9 milliseconds when connecting to anywhere in South and Southeast Asia.   Such highly responsive networks enable applications like smart cities and remote hospital care.  They will also turn Yunnan into a magnet for business investments. 

Fiber optics, which is what optical networks are built with, transmit data at the speed of light.  In early days, optical fiber was mostly used to link major cities with each other or ensure trans-oceanic communications.  Increasingly, however, new technologies make it easier to connect homes and small businesses to fiber. 

Optical networks can not only transfer a lot of data very fast, they also have a minimal impact on the environment.  This is because optical networks consume only a fraction of the energy of wireless networks or copper cabling. 

See how the Lost Stone Villas and Spa in Tengchong, Yunnan, uses optical networks to support the communications needs of well-heeled travelers seeking to lose themselves in the beauty of nature!