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March 8, 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
China Telecom

Wikipedia

 
China Telecom sehk|728 is the largest fixed service telecommunications provider in China, which includes data, Internet and, unusually, the PAS wireless system which is classfied as fixed line.

See also:
  • Communications in China

  • List of Chinese companies




  • http://www.chinatelecom.com.cn/english/ Web site

  • http://www.chinanex.com/company/operator/cntelecom.htm ChinaNex profile


The Chinese Telecom Market

The Chinese Telecommunications
Market
The growth of the Chinese telecom market, driven by the government's modernisation programme, accelerated
throughout the 1980s and he early 1990s. Growth also consistent), exceeded the projcctions of the government's
Five Year Plans. The modenization had its effects in three respects:

Penetration and useage: Teledensity, the basic measure of the penetration of telecom services, increased
tenfold between 19x0 and 1995. The number of long distance calls grew even faster than exchange capacity, with 50 times as many longdistance calls being made in 1995 as in 1980. The growth of telecom services throughout this period
was often double the rate of growth of GDP per capita. The Ninth Five Year Plan (1996-2000)planned to continue the growth of the previous 15 years.

Albeit at a slightly lower pace. But in absolute terms. purchases and installation of equipment were
at an unprecedented scale. Mobile telephony in particular would grow extremely fast: the number of
subscribers was planned to increase fivefold. For the first time, long-distance direct dialing. and later international direct dialing (IDD) became possible. In 1987. the first cellular networks were built using analogue technology (TACS)and in 1993, the first digital cellular networks, using the GSM standard, were constructed.

Mobile networks, which are relatively easy to construct grew much more rapidly than fixed networks,and the subscriber base more than doubled every year through the early 1990s. Paging services grew even faster than cellular networks, and by 1997 it
was estimated that there were 40 million subscribers. China started launching communications satellites in
1984 and increased satellite numbers and capacity through the 1990s. During the 1990s data networks were built and value-added services such as voicemail, call waiting. e-mail and the internet became available.

Quality of telecom services: Before the reforms, reliability of services was very poor. Long-distance
calls usually took between one to four hours to be connected. Waiting lists for residential lines were as long as two years. Progress in improving quality was slower than progress on increasing the quantity of services. because customers' expectations and usage rose faster than the rate of network expansion. In 1992, a World Bank Report on Telecoms in China found that there were still serious problems with regard to service quality. Even then, long-distance circuits in the South of China were so congested that only 15 percent of calls got through.

By the mid-1990s, the rise in service quality had not been as great as the growth in services. The growth of telecom services was not spread evenly. It was led initially by the fastest growing regions, Guangdong province and the cities of Shanghai and Beijing, followed by the other coastal provinces. By 1991, Guangdong had four times as many lines per head as the rest of the country. Shanghai and Beijing were also far ahead of the rest of the country in terms of quantity, quality, and range of services. The development of telecom in each region mirrored the region's economic development.

Telecom Market Structure:
The telecom market is divided into two parts. The first is the manufacture and supply of telecom equipment. There
are a number of different categories of equipment that compose telecom networks. Fixed networks are made up of central office switching systems, which include integrated circuit technology, transmission systems, cable(both fibre-optic and other materials), network access systems, microwave trunk and local loop systems, private branch exchanges (PBX) and handsets. Mobile (alsoknown as 'cellular') and paging networks also have switching sqsterns at their core. linked to a network of base staticlns. and ending with handsets or pagers. Data networks require more sophisticated cable and transmission equipment than voice telephony.

During the 1980s, most of China's equipment needs were satisfied by imports, supported by soft loans made by European governments. In an effort to build a more sustainable doniestic equip~iient manufacturing base. China encouraged foreign equipment vendors to set up joint ventures (JVs) with Chinese companies. At the same time, it developed its own domestic manufacturing industry. With the reduction in solicitors following the Tiananmen Square incident, the proportion of equipment
imported fell. replaced primarily by JV output.As its domestic industry developed, China began to export telecom equipment to a variety of countries. By 1995. it was running a trade surplus in telecorn and office equipment (Exhibits 5 and 6).
The second part of the telecom market is the provision of services over the network.

In China. operators typically plan and construct new networks. and then operate, service and market the services to customers. Chinese operators derived the bulk of their income from up-front connection charges. which were very high relative to other
countries. Thereafter, fees for telephone usage were very lower in mobile telephony. During the early 1990s,the cost of a handset and connection to the mobile network was as high as 54,000, while it cost 5 cents per minute to use. This tariff structure allowed the costs of network construction to be covered very cluickly, while services themselves were charged at the very low marginal cost, without extracting any consumer surplus from users. However, services provided over the network were
not as advanced as those in industrialised countries, nor as advanced as the installed technology would allow.

Reliability and servicing of networks was also poor. In 1997,foreign companies remained strictly prohibited from operating
networks, a result of the belief of the Chinese government that telecommunications is crucial to national security.
However, they were involved in the construction and operation of networks through agreements with certain Chinese operators, who were keen to receive both foreign advice and, more importantly, capital.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "China Telecom".


Last Modified:   2005-04-13


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