For companies and individuals in Xinjiang who have been without Internet access for the last six months, a new government statement should provide some support.

The press office of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has published a report and states that the communications and Internet services in Xinjiang will gradually recover in the coming months. Currently, access to any websites outside of the province of Xinjiang are banned for users within the province. This means that not only can users not visit websites overseas, but they also can not visit almost all the normal websites within China.

After the July 5, 2009, riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region's government implemented partial control over communications in this area, aiming to calm down the situation as soon as possible. At present, the overall situation in this region is reportedly steady. Therefore, with the consent of the central government, the Xinjiang government has decided to reopen the suspended communications services step by step.

Starting from December 28, 2009, the concerned communications services will recover gradually. According to the report, people in Xinjiang will first be able to visit People.com.cn, the official website of People's Daily, and Xinhuanet.com, the official website of Xinhua News Agency. Based on how users deal with the situation, visits to other websites will be gradually reopened and other communications services, including mobile phone short message service and international long-distance call services will also recover "in the future".