The pilot plan for the convergence of the three networks remains deadlocked. Reporters learned recently that in early May, the second draft of the pilot plan for the integration of the three networks submitted by the two major departments of radio and television as well as industry and information technology was considered to still lack operability by the State Council's working group on the integration of the three networks and was required to be revised further.
It is worth noting that unlike the first draft where the two departments were at odds over pilot cities and the scope of two-way entry services, this time the second drafts submitted by both sides avoided many sensitive issues. Instead, the competition between the two sides on household broadband speed has become the focus.
Meanwhile, Guangdong Telecom announced externally that it would launch a broadband upgrade plan on this year's "May 17 World Telecommunications Day", and the original 2M bandwidth users will basically be upgraded to 4M for free. It is claimed that this is just the beginning of the telecommunications broadband upgrade plan, and by the end of 2012, the broadband upgrade target of the telecommunications operator side has been aimed at 100M.
Behind the broadband speed increase of telecommunications
On April 2, the first draft of the three-network convergence plan submitted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television was rejected by the State Council's working group on the integration of the three networks for the reason of "lack of implementability", but the layout of both sides continued.
On April 8, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Opinion on Promoting Fiber Broadband Network Construction" (Document No. 105) with six ministries, which clearly stated that by 2011, the bottom line for household fiber broadband in urban areas nationwide would be: 8Mbps in cities, 2Mbps in rural areas. China Telecom even indicated that by the end of 2010, it would increase the access rate of domestic broadband users in 70% of cities to 12Mbps.
After the telecommunications' broadband speed-up plan was launched and targeted at high-definition video services, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a document (Document No. 41) announcing the suspension of IPTV services in other regions except for Shanghai, Jiangsu, and 12 other cities. Subsequently, it also required dual licensing (content license + content integration license) supervision for emerging Internet TV content.
In response, veteran telecommunications expert Hou Ziqiang said, "Although the 150 billion yuan broadband investment plan unilaterally announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is inspiring, it is regrettable that neither the issuing nor the receiving units of Document No. 105 include the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. This is truly like pressing down on one gourd only to see another pop up."
In fact, on the issue of the pilot plan for the integration of the three networks, the focus of the game between the two sides has shifted from the previous pilot scope to broadband services. As a response to the clean-up of IPTV by the radio and television administration, telecommunications has proposed an even more aggressive bandwidth upgrade plan.
The second draft of the pilot plan obtained by reporters shows that by 2012, in the pilot areas, the cable TV access network will achieve broadcast downstream bandwidth exceeding 2Gbps, narrowcast downstream bandwidth exceeding 1Gbps, and broadband access capability exceeding 100Mbps; the telecommunications broadband access will have a downstream capability of 1Gbps and an individual household capability of 100Mbps.
In the first draft submitted by both sides on April 2, the suggestion for broadband access was that by 2012, the pilot area's cable TV access network would achieve a broadcast downstream bandwidth of 2Gbps, a narrowcast downstream bandwidth of 1Gbps, a downstream of 30Mbps and an upstream of 5Mbps single-cast bandwidth, and core network achieving T-bit transmission and switching; the number of broadband access ports nationwide would exceed 200 million, the average access capability in urban areas would exceed 8Mbps, and the average access capability in rural areas would exceed 2Mbps.
Within just 20 days, telecommunications raised the bandwidth upgrade target from 8Mbps in cities (2M in rural areas) to 100Mbps. Relevant personnel from Guangdong Telecom also stated that, "A new broadband upgrade network 'Tianyi Broadband' will be launched on May 17th, with packages starting at 4M and reaching up to 100M, which is a true high-speed broadband network."
Bao Ran, editor-in-chief of China Digital TV magazine, told reporters, "Previously, telecommunications had upgraded its fixed network across the country, and many places could already support 8Mbps, 2Mbps. But Document No. 105 issued at the beginning of April proposed to roll out fiber-optic broadband with the same access speed, and now it seems that telecommunications wants to use fiber-optic broadband to increase the household speed to 100Mbps, surpassing the NGB currently under construction by radio and television."
Pressure on the next-generation radio and television network
Telecommunications' sudden push not only impacted the existing broadband market but also put pressure on the development of the next-generation broadcasting network currently being constructed by radio and television.
Bao Ran told reporters, "With the fiber-optic broadband project, telecommunications began to increase the broadband access index, forcing radio and television to upgrade. The radio and television camp, which lacks sufficient financial resources, faces pressure."
It is understood that China Telecom is currently cooperating with Huawei to plan to upgrade the current network to a 10T core routing switch. Technically, it is already mature, but the cost of network construction is too high to be easily advanced. However, the proposed 100Mbps has already challenged the 3T network plan for NGB that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television released in 2008.
According to the previous planning of radio and television, nearly 100 billion yuan will be invested over 3-10 years to build an NGB network based on 3T technology. There are plans to build a test network with over 15 million users within three years. Among them, the 500,000-household test network built in Shanghai was already put into use during the Expo this year, with each household's access bandwidth speed exceeding 60Mbps, nearly 100 times faster than the average internet speed of current telecommunications broadband users.
Clearly, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television hopes to use the most advanced 3T technology to achieve overtaking in broadband services. Deputy Director Zhang Haitao of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television pointed out in his keynote speech at CCBN in March this year that taking the United States as an example, currently, wired operators account for 57% of broadband provision in the U.S., while telecommunications operators account for 43%. The world average for broadband provided by cable TV networks is 30%, while China's radio and television operators only account for slightly more than 2%.
Yao Yong, chief engineer of the Xiangfan Cable Television Network Center, once calculated that in the era of high household bandwidth (100M), telecommunications mainly develops towards FTTH (fiber-to-the-home), while radio and television can adopt fiber-to-the-home or fiber-to-the-building + EoC coaxial bandwidth to the home. The comprehensive cost of fiber-to-the-building + EoC to the home is lower than FTTH.
However, the advantages of radio and television have become blurred now. Bao Ran told reporters, "The NGB was very advanced when it was formulated, but currently, telecommunications' fiber-to-the-home plan is more aggressive, and the financial strength of telecommunications operators supports their progress towards the goal of 100Mbps per household."
Regardless, the huge investments by radio and television and telecommunications in the integration of the three networks are good news for equipment manufacturers. Vice President Wu Hequan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering believes that "the integration of the three networks will drive the development of equipment manufacturing and information services. In the next three years, the integration of the three networks will invest and consume 688 billion yuan, including the broadband upgrade of the telecommunications network, the two-way transformation of the broadcasting and television network, and the investment brought by the integration of the three networks in the next three years will exceed 3G."