The General Headquarters of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, after contacting relevant Chinese authorities, has launched direct-dialing telephone service at the railway's construction sites for construction workers to call home or friends.

Construction of the Golmud-Lhasa section of the railway is very hard for the builders due to high elevation and poor weather conditions, posing many difficulties for them.

In cooperation with the Automation Bureau and the Qinghai-Tibet Military Depot Department of the General Logistics Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the railway's General Headquarters decided to build an aerial optical fiber network by using the existing Lanzhou-Xining-Lhasa fiber network and the wire poles on the ground in a bid to open up the direct-dialing service.

The railway's General Headquarters has invested some 20 million yuan to set up a 417-kilometre-long fiber line along the 1,142-kilometre-long Qinghai-Tibet Railway, enabling the workers to call home or dial local phones.