|
Telecom: Case Study of Greed Overpowering Socialism
Market researcher Dataquest puts the number of cellular subscribers
at 51.7 million at the end of March. That made the PRC the largest
market in Asia, just ahead of Japan's 51.1 million subscribers. The
estimate for the current number of Chinese users is 56 million, and
growing fast.
|
|
News
Archive
|
| August
2000 |
| S |
M |
T |
W |
T |
F |
S |
| |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| 6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
| 13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
| 20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
| 27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Not surprisingly, inter-firm competition is emerging, encouraged to a
point by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Fixed-line
provider Telecom will likely get a license to provide cellular
services in December, joining Mobile and Unicom. With the stakes so
high, however, events are proceeding beyond Beijing's control. Unicom
has apparently been moving into local provision of non-cellular
services, which is technically illegal. The obvious motive is to get
the jump on Telecom, whether the government likes it or not.
Recent technological developments have also shown the primacy of the
market. Both the government and the industry have pushed WAP-enabled
phones, the wireless Internet. But a national free trial period has
been extended indefinitely due to indifference from consumers.
Meanwhile, MII had to ban personal access systems, previously thought
to be inefficient, because Telecom was successfully using them to
steal cellular customers from Mobile and Unicom.
|
China
E-Bytes
|
| Industrial production rose a strong 12.8 percent in July to $23.7
billion, led by 15.2 percent growth at foreign-funded enterprises.
Production is now up 11.4 percent for the year to date. |
| Textile exports jumped 42 percent in the first half to $23.8
billion, more than one-fifth of total exports. When WTO accession
drops barriers to textile trade, a lot of foreign textile employees
will need new jobs. |
| 30,000 people in Shaanxi signed a petition to the provincial high
court asking that lawyer Ma Wenlin be released. Ma lodged a complaint
about unfair taxation on behalf of farmers in the province and was
promptly arrested for "disturbing social order." |
|
| Keep
up with the fast changing business environment in
China, the world's biggest and fastest-growing emerging
economy. Sinomania! recommends Orbis
Publications, Experts in Emerging Markets, for
a full range of in-depth coverage on China including
daily/weekly/monthly reports and more. |
|
