A consortium of China’s government ministries is pushing for the establishment of a second national telecommunications network, according to the South China Morning Post. With China already set to become the biggest telecommunications market in the world, a new network could signal an unprecedented bout of order opportunities for foreign companies. China’s existing network is already aiming to more than treble in size to 1m lines this year, but this still represents only about five or six phones per 100 people. It seems that there is a schism in the ruling party over the plan. The Railway, Energy, and Machine Building and Electronics Ministries are quoted as the driving force behind it, but the paper says that the Ministry of Aerospace, the People’s Liberation Army, and the China International Trust & Investment Corp (which owns 25% of an AsiaSat satellite transponder) are also involved. Not surprisingly, the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications, which operates a monopoly service in China, opposes to the plan, calling it unrealistic. Of particular concern, says the Ministry, is how the two networks could be interconnected. The South China Morning Post says that despite its opposition, the Ministry is drawing up contingency plans should the second network goes ahead. Under this plan, the 38 regional telephone companies that currently report to the Ministry would pulled into a new corporation, together with the Directorship General of Telecommunications. The new corporate body would have the power to set rates, decide on network design and development – and could refuse to interconnect with the second network. General control would be retained by the Ministry. Not surprisingly the advocates of a second network are said to prefer that the regional companies be given autonomy to decide which network to connect to.
