Broadband development in our country is lagging behind: speeds below 4M are several times lower than those in the West

Thread Content

At a recent industry conference, Liu Ping, general manager of China Telecom Shandong Branch, shared his thoughts on the development of broadband in China. He noted that the total number of broadband subscribers in China is close to 100 million, the highest figure in the world. However, China still relies primarily on ADSL networks for broadband access, and the speed of this connection has become a bottleneck in the development of broadband services. China has the highest number of broadband users in the world. At that conference, Liu Ping, general manager of Shandong Telecom, said in his speech that the number of global broadband subscribers is continuing to grow rapidly. Globally, although the broadband development in countries such as Japan and South Korea, as well as some Western countries, has reached a mature stage, the number of broadband users in countries like China, the United States, Germany, India, and Russia is still growing rapidly, which helps to maintain a steady and fast growth trend in the global broadband user market. It is reported that the global broadband penetration rate is 7.4%, and thanks to the joint efforts of the regulatory authorities and various service providers, broadband development in our country has now entered a period of rapid growth. In the first half of 2009, the total number of new users exceeded 10 million. The total number of broadband subscribers is also close to 100 million, ranking first in the world. According to statistics from the National Development and Reform Commission, in 2010 the overall size of China’s broadband market was expected to reach 200 billion, while broadband content and value-added services were set to amount to 124 billion. The access bandwidth has become a bottleneck in the development of broadband. Liu Ping has clearly conducted in-depth research and reflection on the development of broadband in China; he believes that the overall level of broadband development in the country is still relatively low. Although China’s broadband user market surpassed that of the United States in 2007 and is set to grow further, latest research reports indicate that the broadband penetration rate on the Chinese mainland is only 21%, placing it 43rd in the world – far behind countries with a higher level of digital development such as South Korea and Singapore. At the same time, the disparities between different regions are becoming increasingly evident. The average broadband penetration rate in the eastern regions exceeds 10%, while it is only 3.6% in the western regions. There is an imbalance in development between urban and rural areas, with a huge gap in broadband penetration rates between cities and villages; in many rural areas, the broadband penetration rate is very low. He believes that the broadband access speed in our country is also far behind that of countries with more developed internet infrastructure worldwide. The 26th Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China, released on July 16, 2009, indicated that according to statistics from international organizations, the average downstream internet speed in major countries in 2007 was 17.4 MB; Japan’s figure exceeded 90 MB. In China, where ADSL is the primary access method, the downstream speed for most users is no more than 4 MB, and this slow access speed has become a bottleneck to the development of broadband services. He suggests that broadband resources should be shared among operators. Regarding the current state of broadband development in China, Liu Ping said that at present, the development of broadband in the country relies too much on the market actions of telecommunications operators, with **limited participation from other parties. Currently, in order to address the financial crisis and boost economic growth, more and more people are **aware of the role that infrastructure development such as broadband plays in promoting the economy. The EU has clearly stated in its strategy for the next generation of high-speed broadband networks that it aims to improve the development levels of all EU countries across various aspects such as coverage and innovation ； Japan plans to accelerate high-speed broadband to 120% by 2010 ； South Korea mentioned in its basic information technology strategies that it would increase the level of informatization by 10 times by 2010. He suggested that resource planning and sharing with telecommunications operators should be established as soon as possible regarding broadband access resources, in order to effectively increase the profitability of resource sharing and reduce duplicate investments.