China to build IP network
IF you want to apply to local telecommunications bureaux in China for the installation of a telephone, you'll need more than just money, but also patience.
In Beijing, for example, the installation fees are as high as 1,000 yuan (US$120) only a couple of months ago and the average waiting period was two months.
If you are a web surfer and dial through a local telephone line to enjoy cyber-roaming on the World Wide Web, it often turns out to be a World Wide Wait, a term coined by some impatient "netizens."
And the charges, though reduced a bit recently, are still high enough to have most would-be netizens think twice before applying for an account.
For example, the monthly fee for surfing on-line averages about 1,000 yuan (US$120) in Beijing, more than five times than in the United States.
Until now, complaints have been met by blank stares or worse because, wherever you are in China, you are forced to use the basic network of the behemoth China Telecom to either phone or surf on-line.
Simply put, the watertight monopoly of the basic telecommunications network by China Telecom leaves users no choice. This remains the case in most areas of telecommunications despite the establishment of China Unicom five years ago, which has been encouraged to play the role of David against China Telecom's Goliath.
When you have to drive your car on others' roads, you have to obey their rules, however unreasonable they may be, as some analysts said.
That day will be gone when a new basic network is laid across the country over the coming years, ushering in competition to the once forbidden zone of basic telecommunications networks. Better and much cheaper services are expected.
A high-speed Internet project, known formally as the Broadband Internet Protocol Network Model Project, was ratified recently by the State Development Planning Commission under the State Council, or cabinet.
The project, scheduled to start construction later this year, involves the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Ministry of Railways (MR), the State Bureau of Radio, Film and Television (SBRFT) and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government.
The four participants will invest 300 million yuan (US$36 million) to build a backbone network, linking 15 major cities in the eastern part of China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
This will be a broadband, high-speed network that is designed and built for the Internet Protocol (IP), in contrast to the telecommunications network of China Telecom that is based mainly on sound-processing technology.
If the model project goes smoothly, the IP network will eventually extend across the country, using more than 1 million kilometres of optical fibre lines laid by the MR and the SBRFT, according to experts involved in the project.
It will eventually develop into a nationwide information highway parallel to the current telecommunications network and bring welcome competition to the monopolized telecommunications business, they said.
In fact, some experts and economists have already labelled the backbone network as the "second network," hoping it will put an end to the complete dominance of the basic network owned by China Telecom.
The exorbitant charges and lacklustre service associated with China Telecom have incurred nationwide criticism. Although there has been some limited competition on the level of services in recent years, facility-based competition is still far from being a reality.
The headline-making plan to break up China Telecom, which was unveiled by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) this February, fell short of public hopes. It involves establishing four companies based on different services, but breaking up the basic network is excluded.
Some economists like Zhou Qiren from Beijing University have held that real competition can not come without the break-up of the basic network.
But that viewpoint has been facing severe opposition from other experts, especially those from inside the telecommunications area.
They believe that the integration of a nationwide network is essential for the safety of national telecommunications and for the survival of China's telecommunications industry in the face of approaching competition from foreign telecommunications giants.
"This project could be seen as an institutional revolution of the telecommunications mechanism of China that was brought about by the technological revolution," said Hou Ziqiang, a research fellow of the Institute of Acoustics under the CAS.
Hou is an adamant advocate of the new IP network and has been a trailblazer in pushing forward the project in China since the mid-1990s.
He will also be involved in technological work on the project.
Hou likened the traditional telecommunications network to a railway network linked by numerous switches. "If two people want to contact each other, the network sets up a temporary line by automatically pulling numerous switches. When they hang up, the line is cut," Hou said.
"Under that system, the linking of different networks is difficult and inefficiency is unavoidable," he added.
The traditional telecommunications network works on a narrow band designed to transport audio signals, which means high costs and long waiting time when it is overloaded with digitized data in the form of audio and video signals.
With China's Internet surfers increasing by nearly two fold from 610,000 to 2.1 million last year, Hou predicted that the information flow via Internet would finally surpass that of traditional audio services in the next two to three years.
"There is no doubt that IP services will become No 1 in future telecommunications," Hou said, confidently. "Accordingly, the design of future telecommunications networks should target IP services."
To avoid the delay of audio and video transmissions that is typical of the current on-line service, a broadband network would be the natural answer, he said.
Telephony over IP lines, for example, is known to garble voice transmissions.
The problem can be solved as long as the breadth of the transmission lines is large enough.
Hou promised a monthly fee of less than 100 yuan (US$12) for surfing the web over the new IP network, one-tenth of the current standard. "There will be no time limit in that case," he said.
Chen Xiaoning, director of the Network Centre of SBRFT, likened the new IP network to Canet3 in Canada, the first IP network in the world that directly transports IP data through optical fibre.
He revealed that high-level leaders attached great importance to the project, saying it conforms to both the development of telecommunications technology and the reform of the telecommunications institutions of China.
A special meeting involving Premier Zhu Rongji and the minister of the information industry was held this February 11 to discuss the project.
Two month later, the project was ratified.
What brought the four participants together are their complementary advantages in technology and facilities, according to Hou.
CAS boasts the technology and experience, the Shanghai municipal government has the funds and the MR and the SBRFT facilitate installation of the optical fibre network.
The SBRFT's trump is control over cable television networks that link more than 80 million households in China.
These cable television networks were mainly built by the SBRFT's local subordinate bureaux and could work as the Limited Area Network, or LAN, for the backbone IP network.
In the 15 pilot cities in the eastern part of China, cable television networks extend to almost every household.
In fact, the SBRFT has long sought, but failed, to enter into the profitable telecommunications business through its cable networks.
Last year, the bureaux of radio and television in Leshan in Sichuan Province and Zibo in Shandong Province opened telephone services via their own cable TV networks with charges far below that of the local telecommunications bureau.
No installation fees were required and users only paid a fixed monthly fee of less than 50 yuan (US$6) for unlimited use.
China Telecom claimed the businesses were illegal and asked the local government to ban them.
Ironically, some local telecommunications bureaux have also sought involvement in providing television services.
With the establishment of the IP network, competition would spill from on-line services into the traditional telecommunications area.
That is probably the most attractive part for average people. "In terms of technology, there would be no hindrance to providing traditional services such as long distance calls on the IP network." Hou said, "And the fees could be much lower than the current ones."
"As long as the MII gives us the licence." he added.
The reactions so far vary.
IT professionals, especially Internet service providers and Internet content providers, welcomed the news with caution.
Zhang Zhaoyang, founder of Sohu, the popular Chinese search engine, said competition between the networks would eventually benefit end-users. "Sohu will benefit from it, too," he said.
While admitting to its technological advantages, some others showed more caution.
Yun Tao, deputy general manager of Century Link, expressed his doubt about the IP network's management capabilities, saying they lacked experience. "In terms of the personnel quality, they fall far behind China Telecom," he said.
Voices from inside the telecommunications area seem to be more critical.
Concerns about the reliability of running the enormous telecommunications services on the IP network means that more testing is required, some suggested.
And the prospect of individual demand for the network service is still unclear in China, which could very likely lead to huge deficits following its inception.
Understandably, Hou belongs to the optimists, saying the technological advantages of the IP network will eventually give it the upper hand in the competition. "The technological advantages will give us room to survive," he said. |
