Some Internet users in Beijing will get their broadband speeds increased up to 20 Mbps (Megabits per second) for free after the Beijing branch of China Telecom finishes upgrading speeds of the city's broadband networks, the Global Times confirmed with Beijing Telecom Wednesday.

All home user broadband speeds will be increased in the initiative. Fiber optic users with current speeds of 4 Mbps and 8 Mbps will even be able to accelerate their connection speeds up to 20 Mbps.

"The broadband speed storm is free for users. It is expected to be finished by the end of this month," Tang Liuming, spokesman for Beijing Telecom, told the Global Times.

Beijing Telecom began upgrading broadband speeds on Friday, but many local residents have not realized their Internet speeds have increased.

"We do not plan to announce the upgrade information until it is finished, as we fear a possible shock to Internet systems brought on by increasing downloads or Web services used during the process," he added.

Beijing Mobile also plans to increase the broadband speed for free this year, with a similar plan to that of Telecom's, the Beijing Times reported.

Zeng Jianqiu, professor at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, who participated in Beijing Telecom's upgrading project, told the Global Times that the speeds of all broadband networks will reach 20 M by the end of 2012.

"Speeds will be sufficient to operate more services quicker, such as video transmission," he said.

"However, it isn't easy to realize speeds of 20 Mbps or higher as we must replace copper cables with fiber optic ones, which is the most difficult part at the moment, since many residents believe it is a waste of their money," Zeng told the Global Times.

After the project is finished, the average speed of Beijing Telecom home broadband services will reach 4.7 Mbps, close to the global standard of 5.6 Mbps, according to chinanews.com.