The mysterious and unfathomable Kekexili, the Qinghai Lake with its water and sky blending into one, and the undulating Qaidam Basin... In the recently fully operational Phase III expansion project of Caojiabao International Airport in Xining, Qinghai, the deployment of 5G-A network allows passengers to easily experience the "virtual same frame" of these beautiful scenery. Although located on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, the third pole of the Earth, with complex terrain and harsh environment, Qinghai's communication network construction has made progress despite difficulties. According to data from the Qinghai Provincial Communications Administration, currently, all administrative villages (village committees) in the province have achieved fiber optic network access and 4G wireless network coverage. The 5G access rate in administrative villages is over 95%, while in 2015, the fiber optic broadband coverage rate in administrative villages was only 11.7%. This is a microcosm of the achievements of the 10th anniversary of the implementation of universal telecommunications services in China. Since 2015, China has deployed 11 batches of universal telecommunications service construction tasks, achieving "broadband connectivity in every village and 5G connectivity in every township", connecting the information "arteries" of rural areas, transforming digital "traffic" into "incremental development", and providing solid support for winning the battle against poverty, comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, and accelerating agricultural and rural modernization. Breaking through: Gu Cheng Bu Gu learned that this trip was going to Mangya City, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and the reporter had been filled with some excitement. This is a city that frequently stands out due to its loneliness, surrounded by three major uninhabited areas: Qiangtang, Aljin, and Lop Nur. Its administrative area covers 49900 square kilometers, equivalent to the size of three Beijing cities, but its permanent population is less than 20000. Along the 315 National Highway, the scenery outside the car window constantly changes. The 800 mile vast sea is uninhabited, creating a unique and magnificent scenery. Scenic spots such as Aiken Spring, Emerald Lake, and Cold Lake Mars Camp have become new "internet famous check-in spots". As the mobile signal indicator becomes full, Aiken Spring Scenic Area has arrived. Next to the tourist service center, a 35 meter high telecommunications universal service base station stands tall. This was newly built at the beginning of this year, and the passenger flow of the scenic area has been increasing year by year. Building a high tower can ensure a wider signal coverage range and facilitate later expansion, "said Chen Zhihang, the regional manager of Mangya Tower Company in Haixizhou. It is reported that this base station is entirely powered by solar photovoltaic panels, fully utilizing the local characteristics of long sunshine hours and high intensity, which not only saves electricity costs but also meets the requirements of ecological protection and development. This type of base station accounts for more than half of the communication base stations in Mangya. Following the trail towards the center of Aiken Spring, the main spring "Devil's Eye" with a diameter of over 10 meters is surging with green waves. Three to five drones are freely overlooking the magnificent scenery from high altitude. Tourists are enthusiastic about taking photos and sharing them, and some even livestream videos with their families. The signal is full, but the city is not alone. Wang Ke, the head of the Industrial Department of the Mangya City Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that before 2014, there were only 104 communication base stations in the city. As of May 2025, the number has increased to 202, with 98 new base stations built, including 36 telecommunications universal service base stations. The signal coverage rate has been increased from 30% to 85%, effectively solving the problem of signal silos in key areas. Achieving this result is not an easy task. Distance is the biggest problem, "Huang Shoulin, director of the Communication Department of Haixizhou Iron Tower Company, felt heartbroken when he thought about the communication construction process in Mangya City. I still remember the Dongping Oilfield base station in Lenghu Town, which was built during winter. Before the construction of the base station, the transportation of materials alone had already taken up half of the construction period: the sand and gravel used for the base station foundation needed one day to be transported from the Mangya Sand and Stone Factory 300 kilometers away; The battery pack in the computer room comes from the warehouse of Haixizhou Company, which is over 600 kilometers away and took three days to transport. Such examples abound on the road to promoting universal telecommunications services: in Gongshan County, Nujiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province, dozens of tons of base station building materials were transported by mule and horse teams; Deep in the Taihang Mountains of Shanxi Province, the base stations on the hanging wall highways need to be built on the edge of cliffs, and large mechanical equipment cannot be used for construction, so they are carried by hand and shoulder; On Butterfly Island in Jiangshan Town, Fangcheng District, Fangchenggang City, Guangxi Province, the construction team overcame the extreme conditions of no fresh water, no electricity, and no transmission, and built the country's first "optical hydrogen storage" integrated communication base station... During the 13th and 14th Five Year Plans, the information and communication industry has supported the construction of fiber optic networks in over 130000 administrative villages and the construction of 100000 4G and 5G base stations in rural areas, weaving the information sky and lighting up the hope of millions. Revitalization: Touching the internet to generate gold. "There are no additives in this dried milk, everyone must try it..." In a tent next to the Zaha Highway in Qinghai, anchor Huang Yanyun is helping Yang Shoucai and Zaxi Cuomo's family live stream selling specialty products such as beef jerky and dairy products. This disabled couple used to be local low-income households, but now their per capita annual income is over 10000 yuan. This change cannot be separated from the construction of local communication base stations. Zhaha Highway is a road between Zhaba Town in Hualong County, Qinghai Province and Hacheng Village in Riyue Tibetan Township, Huangyuan County. It is not only the main horizontal road in the "Four Verticals and Three Horizontals" highway network system in Qinghai Province, but also an important link supporting the development layout of "one core, one ring, and multiple belts" ecological tourism. Due to factors such as vast land, sparse population, complex terrain, harsh environment, high construction and maintenance costs, and restrictions on ecological protection areas, many road sections have been without signal coverage for a long time, which has a great impact on grazing, emergency response, and tourism. Yuan Qigong, the first secretary of Riyue Tibetan Township stationed in the village, is very worried. The turning point will occur in 2024. With the support of the telecommunications universal service project, Xining Tower communicated with the local government and built four universal service base stations along the way. When building the station, tons of building materials had to be transported to the hillside. Some local Tibetan people brought their own yaks to help, and it was completed and put into use before winter arrived in October of that year. ”Li Zhide, the regional manager of Huangyuan County of Xining Iron Tower Company, is grateful. In Yuan Qigong's opinion, now that the signal is good, emergency communication is no longer a problem, and it has a great promoting effect on the tourism industry, benefiting the people in a tangible way. Standing at the entrance of Yang Shoucai's tent, you can see a brand new communication tower not far away. I used to sell specialty products on the roadside without internet, so I couldn't pay. Now everyone can just scan the code to buy things, which is very convenient. Sales have doubled several times. Many people have even become repeat customers and can buy directly through WeChat, "he said with a smile. Ten years of electrification, the mountains and towns have undergone tremendous changes. As of now, Qinghai Tower has invested over 1.574 billion yuan, built and delivered over 30000 communication base stations, and over 12500 5G base stations. Among them, a total investment of over 100 million yuan has been made to build more than 1500 universal service stations, comprehensively enhancing the capacity of rural network infrastructure and narrowing the "digital divide" between urban and rural areas. Looking at the whole country, with the continuous extension of communication networks to rural and remote areas and the continuous implementation of precise cost reduction measures, from deep mountains to deserts and Gobi, from loess slopes to snowy plateaus, more and more ordinary people have embarked on the train of modern information civilization. At the same time, the internet has driven the application of e-commerce, distance education, and telemedicine to take root and bear fruit in rural areas, injecting "new vitality" and adding "new impetus" to rural revitalization and development. Guardian: Empowered by Digital Intelligence, starting from the city of Golmud in Qinghai Province, we traveled along the G109 line of the Qinghai Tibet Highway, which is currently undergoing quality improvement. We crossed the Kunlun Mountain Pass and experienced more than seven hours of turbulence before finally arriving at the Sonam Dajie Nature Reserve in Kekexili. Looking up, it can be seen that the Tibetan antelope statue and the communication tower are "watching over each other". Look at the two high-definition gimbals at the top of the base station, they are the 'thousand mile eyes' of this protection station, which can rotate 360 degrees and have a visible distance of up to 20 kilometers, "said Liu Hongqiang, manager of the Industry Development Department of Golmud Tower Company. Kekexili, with a total area of 45000 square kilometers and an average elevation of over 4600 meters, is currently one of the largest, highest altitude, and richest national nature reserves in China, and an important component of the "Chinese Water Tower". In 2019, a newly formed lake here faced the risk of dam breach. Once a dangerous situation occurs, downstream facilities such as the Qinghai Tibet Highway, Qinghai Tibet Railway, Lanxila fiber optic cable, and various facilities within the protected area will be severely damaged. In a critical moment, the Iron Tower Company volunteered and built a 35 meter communication base station, a 70000 kilowatt photovoltaic power supply system, and a remote monitoring system in just seven days at the Sonam Dajie Nature Reserve, providing reliable data support for relevant departments' decision-making. After the completion of this tower station, it not only safeguards the ecological security around Xinsheng Lake, but also provides valuable information for the protection of wildlife and ecological environment monitoring in Sanjiangyuan. In 2020, Golmud Tower Company deepened the sharing and utilization of station site resources, and installed equipment from three operators here, achieving full coverage of mobile broadband networks around Sonam Dajie Protection Station. Originally, there was no signal in the uninhabited area of Kekexili. Since last year, we have gradually extended our communication and digital networks inward. Among them, we have built 5 base stations on the mountain patrol route to Zhuonai Lake, where Tibetan antelopes give birth, and deployed cameras by the lake. ”Liu Hongqiang revealed that in response to the difficult conditions for mountain patrols, he and relevant departments are exploring the installation of unmanned aerial vehicle take-off and landing platforms at base stations and deploying unmanned aerial vehicle inspections. This is not an isolated case. Accelerating digital transformation and upgrading, empowering thousands of industries with digital towers, is becoming the trend. In recent years, China Tower has been fully committed to serving the construction of Digital China. Through "Tower+Big Data+AI", it has equipped multiple industries with "Thousand Mile Eyes", "Wind Ears", and "Smart Brains". Hundreds of thousands of "communication towers" have been upgraded to "digital towers", widely serving more than 40 fields such as emergency response, national land, forestry and grassland, environmental protection, water conservancy, transportation, agriculture, etc. Looking towards the future, the wave of digital intelligence is surging, and universal telecommunications services will help promote regional coordinated development, comprehensive rural revitalization, prosperity of the border, and stability of the border. (New Society)