Chinese Carriers Ready Themselves for Fiber Deployment
A look at the main carriers’ plans as a result of the government stimulus program.
The recent announcement that seven Chinese government ministries will jointly roll out a national stimulus plan for building fiber broadband ports by the end of 2011 has prompted the country’s three major carriers to strengthen their fixed line broadband competitiveness while preparing to support a full range of services in the future, according to iSuppli Corp.
China Telecom’s bandwidth plan aims to provide high-end household users with 20Mbit/Sec. bandwidth access capabilities at the end of 2010, and with 50Mbit/Sec. access by 2012. Also, in response to the government’s stimulus plan, China Telecom has set a target in 2010 of 9.4 million fiber broadband subscribers—90,000 of which are intended to be Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) subscribers.
For China Unicom, whose unified bidding process for 110 million EPON ports was completed in 2009, fiber broadband subscribers are expected to reach 11.7 million in 2010, an increase of 5.7 million over 2009.
The last major carrier, China Mobile—weak in terms of fixed line network resources—does not appear to be in a hurry to pursue PON deployments. Because it lacks a large established base of consumer broadband subscribers, China Mobile will first deploy PON equipment for enterprise users, employing the backhaul of wireless base stations for city-wide wireless network initiatives. The carrier’s EPON and GPON equipment tests first began in 2008 with a total test volume of around 200,000 ports. Unified GPON bidding was then conducted in September 2009, with both Chinese giant Huawei Technologies and French-based Alcatel-Lucent emerging as successful bidders in the first round.
For its part, China Mobile deployed only a few GPON and EPON field trials in 2009 when it was a new entrant in the fixed line broadband access market. The carrier, however, is expected to sign 4 million broadband access subscribers in 2010.
In the wake of the 2008 Olympic Games as well as the currently ongoing 2010 Shanghai Expo, the Beijing government intends to make China a global center for high technology. As a result, triple-play and broadband access services have been made national policy priorities at the State Council level. To this end, various factors are at play encouraging FTTH deployment, including the size of the Chinese market, the relatively low cost of labor, the reduction in FTTH equipment costs and the government’s readiness to invest in advanced technology.
The recent announcement that seven Chinese government ministries will jointly roll out a national stimulus plan for building fiber broadband ports by the end of 2011 has prompted the country’s three major carriers to strengthen their fixed line broadband competitiveness while preparing to support a full range of services in the future, according to iSuppli Corp.
China Telecom’s bandwidth plan aims to provide high-end household users with 20Mbit/Sec. bandwidth access capabilities at the end of 2010, and with 50Mbit/Sec. access by 2012. Also, in response to the government’s stimulus plan, China Telecom has set a target in 2010 of 9.4 million fiber broadband subscribers—90,000 of which are intended to be Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) subscribers.
For China Unicom, whose unified bidding process for 110 million EPON ports was completed in 2009, fiber broadband subscribers are expected to reach 11.7 million in 2010, an increase of 5.7 million over 2009.
The last major carrier, China Mobile—weak in terms of fixed line network resources—does not appear to be in a hurry to pursue PON deployments. Because it lacks a large established base of consumer broadband subscribers, China Mobile will first deploy PON equipment for enterprise users, employing the backhaul of wireless base stations for city-wide wireless network initiatives. The carrier’s EPON and GPON equipment tests first began in 2008 with a total test volume of around 200,000 ports. Unified GPON bidding was then conducted in September 2009, with both Chinese giant Huawei Technologies and French-based Alcatel-Lucent emerging as successful bidders in the first round.
For its part, China Mobile deployed only a few GPON and EPON field trials in 2009 when it was a new entrant in the fixed line broadband access market. The carrier, however, is expected to sign 4 million broadband access subscribers in 2010.
In the wake of the 2008 Olympic Games as well as the currently ongoing 2010 Shanghai Expo, the Beijing government intends to make China a global center for high technology. As a result, triple-play and broadband access services have been made national policy priorities at the State Council level. To this end, various factors are at play encouraging FTTH deployment, including the size of the Chinese market, the relatively low cost of labor, the reduction in FTTH equipment costs and the government’s readiness to invest in advanced technology.
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