Sina Technology News, March 5th - National People's Congress representative Zheng Jie, General Manager of China Mobile Anhui Company, who attended the Two Sessions, criticized some developers and property management companies for charging unreasonable fees, artificially raising thresholds, restricting the entry of other telecommunications enterprises, seriously infringing on the communication choice rights of residents in residential areas. He suggested that broadband be categorized as infrastructure, listed alongside water, electricity, and gas.
Broadband should be regarded as public infrastructure
In his proposal for this year's Two Sessions, Zheng Jie specifically proposed to accelerate broadband network construction, build an information highway, making the broadband industry a true "strategic emerging industry." Moreover, broadband construction requires huge investments, it is not just market behavior but must be included in the universal service category.
Zheng Jie mentioned that since the international financial crisis in 2008, the US, Japan, and Europe have all incorporated broadband national strategies into their international economic stimulus plans. For example, $7.2 billion in the U.S. economic stimulus plan will be directly used to improve network broadband, especially in remote areas. The Japanese government supports broadband development with policies such as accelerated depreciation and interest-free loans. About 1 billion euros of EU funds will focus on developing internet infrastructure in remote areas of member states. The Australian government will invest 43 billion Australian dollars to construct a national broadband network... At the recently concluded EU spring summit of leaders on March 2nd, a key discussion was how to promote economic growth, one important measure being strengthening broadband infrastructure construction.
He cited Anhui Province as an example, believing there are three prominent issues with broadband: first, broadband development lags relatively behind; second, fiber-to-the-home development is not fast enough; third, communication facilities have not been incorporated into urban and rural planning.
Zheng Jie said that although the importance of broadband has been repeatedly emphasized by all parties, at the decision-making level, it has always been treated as corporate behavior. In fact, many national governments have already categorized broadband as important public infrastructure, akin to water, electricity, gas, and highways.
The gap between our country's broadband construction and international standards is widening increasingly
Zheng Jie also severely criticized some problems encountered in our country's broadband construction.
He stated that when some countries specifically legislate to promote fiber-optic access, communication operators in mainland China are struggling greatly to make fiber enter residential areas and buildings. The progress of fiber-to-the-home is seriously lagging behind, let alone broadband network construction in rural areas.
He said, especially some real estate development enterprises and property management companies charge unreasonable fees, sign exclusive agreements with individual communication enterprises, artificially raise thresholds, restrict the entry of other communication enterprises, seriously infringing on the communication choice rights of residents in residential areas and the equal entry rights of communication enterprises.
He believed that these issues lead to the overall conclusion that while our country's informatization level has made great progress in recent years, other countries have progressed even faster. It can be said that the lag in broadband construction has widened the international gap in China's informatization level.
Broadband construction is not merely corporate behavior
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed to promote and implement the "Broadband China" strategy, planning to strive for national policy and financial support, accelerating the construction of fiber broadband networks, expanding coverage, implementing broadband internet "price reduction and speed increase". The goal is by the end of 2015, urban family bandwidth reaches over 20M, rural families reach over 4M, provincial capital cities in developed eastern regions reach 100M. Meanwhile, continue to promote the establishment of universal service funds, deeply implement the village-to-village communication project and the information countryside activity.
Zheng Jie expressed that it must rely on joint efforts from the government, enterprises, and society to form a collective force driving broadband network construction and development.
For this reason, Zheng Jie suggested: First, play the role of the government in overall planning, application promotion, and policy guarantees, especially improving laws and regulations, incorporating communication facility construction into a legal framework. Second, quickly formulate broadband network construction development plans, increasing support and assistance to basic network facilities in central and western rural areas, accelerating broadband extension to rural areas, narrowing the digital divide. Third, accelerate fiber-to-the-home engineering construction, strengthen shared construction and sharing of broadband network infrastructure, avoiding repeated construction. Fourth, actively promote the popularization of broadband in various aspects such as e-government, e-commerce, healthcare, transportation, urban management, community services, continuously enhancing the level of informatization. (Kang Zhao)