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| Reviewing China's Broadband Development in Past Five Years |
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Not long ago, the international Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released a report on the global rankings for broadband network construction achievements in year 2008, which triggered great sensation in China’s IT industry. Although the number of Chinese Internet usersup to 221 million (as of the end of February 2008, according to the data of the Ministry of Information Industry) tops the world, China failed to include itself into the Top 30 list.
In past five years, the broadband network has brought about earth-shaking changes for the Chinese people in theirwayof living and working. According to the Monthly Statistics Bulletin of Telecom Industry releasedby the Ministry of Industry and Information in March 2008, the number of China's Internet access subscriber reached 71.468 million, an increase of 5 million and 40 thousand compared to the end of 2007. Not only in big cities, even in the remote mountainousareas, online games, online videos, online dating services and other applications developed through the broadband network have become indispensable spirit food for the young.
The latest financial report from China Telecom shows that its Internet customers reached 35.65 million in 2007, an increase of 25.9% compared to the end of 2006. And broadband-related Internet business revenue reached 31.34 billion RMB, an increase of 32.1% compared to 2006, accounting for 17.5% of total operating revenue. |
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The broadband service revenue of another telecom giant China Netcom reached 13.835 billion RMB in 2007, and Internet-related income reached 532 million RMB. At the same time, China Netcom's broadband subscribers reached 19.768 million, an increase of 31.1% compared to 2006.
China has the world's largest broadband user base. But only 16% of the population can get access to Internet by the end of 2007, higher than 7.1% in the vast rural areas, but lower than 19.1% globally. It would be even lower if the broadband coverage was calculated. Linked but Inaccessible
A saying has been widely spread inside China's network world that the furthest distance in China's Internet is not from China to the United States, but from China Telecom to Chine Netcom. It is true that this phenomenon brings about waste of resources and redundant construction in the telecommunication industry. A technical director of a portal website revealed that if a website placed 20 machines in China Telecom, it must place 20 machines in China Netcom aswell, which means doubling theinvestment.
Earlier reports said that the settlement price for the Internet Exchange Center designated by the former Ministry of Information Industry connected with China Telecom, China Netcom decreased by 15%. It is said the implementation of the measure plays some role on improvement of North-South inaccessible connection, but temporarily an authoritative conclusion can not be made. Some experience of our neighbouring South Korea is worth learning. The pace of development of broadband in South Korea has been leading in the world in recent years. The coverage rate of broadband in South Korea has reached 93%, which makes South Korea one of the countries with largest number of broadband subscribers in the world. South Korea's experience tells us that the broadband network belongs to the national information infrastructure, and the government should promote reduction of broadband access charges through such ways as direct investment, offering subsidies to the operators and supporting emerging operators. Some experts believe that, the central government, in fact, can take back the backbone network through State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), therefore, the reorganized China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile have to lease the network. This may be a good idea. Broadbandnot Broad, no Way out Over the past five years, China has made tremendous progress in broadband technology and applications, but this is not a remarkable achievement, since the most applications of China's broadband rest on at the common level of ADSL with 512 Kbps, while the average download rate of the countries on the list is 9.2 Mbps, and South Korea ranks the first with a rate of 49.5 Mb. Broadband is not broad, which becomes a common trouble. Some people complain that the family ADSL’s largest download speed has never exceeded 200 K, mostly the download speed is less than 50 K, and 15-20K is the routine. For the broadband prices, currently, the monthly subscription price of the ordinary ADSL with 1 Mbps is 138 RMB in Beijing, the monthly subscription price for the one with 512 kbps is 120 RMB (not preferential price). According to the ranking of 30 OECD member countries made by ITIF, average coverage rate of household broadband reaches 51%, the average download speed is 9.2 Mbps, the lowest price is 3.77 U.S. dollars per month per Mbps, and except Turkey and Mexico, the charges of the other 28 countries are less than10 dollars. Other regions in China, to consider regional differences, price for the monthly subscription service for ADSL broadband is about 80-120 RMB, compared to around 20 U.S. dollars in the United States, Britain and other countries . Some "experts" point out that China's charges are far below that of many developed countries! It is absolutely true. But according to the data of National Bureau of Statistics, per capita disposable income of Chinese urban residents in 2007 is 13,786 RMB, 1,148 RMB a month; the monthly average income ofAmericansis 3,000 U.S. dollars (after-tax); thepriceforaccessto the Internet intheUnitedStatesis less than 1 % ofpersonal income, compared to more than 10% in China.Moreover, a number can only beusedto connect a machine; that’s to say, if there are two or more computers at home, youhave to go to abusinessoffice toopenaspecial account sothatyoucanaccessmorecomputerstotheInternet, or you will suffer annoyance of broken network ifyoulinkmorecomputerswithoutaspecialaccount. I would like to take a commonlyused official sayingtoconcludethearticle: over the past five years, China hasmade significant achievements inthe development of broadband business, but the shortcomings are obvious, and I hope we can continue to makepersistenteffortstopromote China's broadband cause. |
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