China shouldn’t reduce its market-opening commitments in the category of value-added services by reclassifying them as “basic” services, “a category that is far more restrictive for foreign investors,” a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said. It said the capitalization requirements that China has established for providers of basic telecom services were “unrealistic, bear no reasonable relationship to commercial or public interest requirements, and constitute a barrier to entry. This high capitalization requirement should be eliminated.” The report said China’s classification of value-added services had become more restrictive since it entered the WTO in 2001. “The reduction in the scope of value-added services and the increase in the scope of basic services are especially problematic given the unreasonably burdensome registered capital requirement for foreign-invested basic service joint ventures,” it said. The report recommended that China promotes greater transparency in legal and regulatory proceedings, including the consistent use of required advance notice and comment periods. It said China should take steps to increase the independence of the regulator, the Ministry of Information Industries, from the major state-owned telecom operators, and restrict the ownership and operation of international gateways to wholly owned telecom service providers.
Exports to China
DSL added 10.7 million subscribers worldwide in the first half of 2003, to a total of 46.7 million, said a study by London analyst firm Point Topic. It predicted the number of DSL subscribers globally would reach 60 million by the end of the year. The study said N. America added 1.2 million subscribers in the 6-month period, with Japan (at 8.257 million) being the only country with more connections than the U.S. (at 7.575 million). It said Asia-Pacific had 17.8 million subscribers, followed by Western Europe, with 12.8 million homes and businesses using broadband DSL. The study said 7 of the 54 countries with commercial broadband DSL services accounted for almost 75% of the world’s subscriber growth, with Japan adding 2.6 million subscribers, China and the U.S. more than a million each and 4 European countries more than 500,000 each. It said 6 of the top 10 countries showing the fastest growth in DSL subscribers just started serious commercial deployment of broadband: Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Ireland, Poland, Columbia and Mexico. Israel had the fastest growth among established markets with more than 10% of telephone lines delivering broadband DSL, the study said. At 94.1% growth, the U.K. was the fastest growing country in Western Europe in the first half of the year, reaching its first million subscribers to DSL services, and Singapore and China, both showed growth of about 85%, it said.
SBC said Tues. it hit the 3 million customer mark for DSL this month. The company said it added 304,000 subscribers in its 2nd quarter, triple other Bells’ rate. The service will be available to 80% of SBC customers in 2004, CEO Edward Whitacre said at a Boston conference. The U.S. added 1.125 million DSL users the first half of 2003, pushing the total to almost 7.6 million, Point Topic analysis said Tues. in a report for DSL Forum. Japan added 2.6 million, for 8.3 million total, and China added 1.9 million, to hit 4.1 million.
There’s a lot of money being recruited for presidential campaigns from mass media executives, but no consensus on where that money should flow, according to an examination by our affiliated publication Washington Internet Daily of about 69,000 campaign donations to 2004 presidential candidates. The data are current through June 30 and were filed by the campaigns at the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Nokia said it had received an order worth more than $65 million to expand the GSM network of China Mobile’s subsidiary Jiangxi MCC. Under the agreement, it said, it would supply its core and radio-access network infrastructure and service management system. The company said it had begun the deliveries and expected to bring the new capacity into use “as soon as possible.” Separately, Nokia said it had received an order from Hong Kong CSL to expand and upgrade the operator’s GSM/GPRS network.
Alpha Spacecom and China Film Group plan to distribute domestic motion pictures, including Westerns, via a new satellite digital cinema and home distribution platform, Alpha said. The new unnamed venture will reconstruct and upgrade movie theater complexes to digital projection formats, the company said. A satellite transmission service will be provided through a satellite hub, Alpha said.
Siemens said it would invest more than $110 million in R&D for mobile phones in Brazil in the next 5 years. It said that would be the 5th R&D center for mobile phones after those in Germany, Denmark, China and the U.S., and it would be fully integrated into the existing global network of innovation. The company said it expected to start local production of wireless modules in Manaus this fall.
Sprint said it expanded its global IP backbone to Taiwan to offer global enterprises, carriers and ISPs based in that country enhanced connectivity to China and N. American and European markets.
BestNet Communications said it chose France Telecom (FT) to provide voice services to its proprietary communication network. BestNet COO Paul Jachim said selecting FT would allow the company to “significantly enhance the quality of our service to Europe and the Far East -- specifically Hong Kong, Singapore and China.”
China Wireless said it signed a cooperative agreement with P-Com to develop a broadband wireless network in China. It said under the agreement, P-Com would provide China Wireless with equipment and support for their line of wireless products, and China Wireless would recommend and popularize the products of P-Com.