The Competition in Telecommunication
3 min readMarket of Telecommunication
China boasts the largest number of fixed line telephone and mobile phone subscribers as well as the largest Internet service market in the world.By mid-2004 there were 310 million mobile phone subscribers and 299 million landline subscriptions across the country-incredible figures when you consider that China’s telecommunications system was virtually nonexistent well into the 1980s.
In fact it is precisely the lack of historical infrastructure that has allowed China to basically leapfrog old technology and establish a modem，wel1-functioning telecom system，albeit one that remains unevenly distributed across the country.Big cities，industrial centers and many larger towns enjoy excellent products and service while，not surprisingly，more rural and less prosperous areas make do with the less advanced options available.
China’s telecom market is regarded as the world’s most important battleground by many of the big multinationals and is right at the cutting edge of telecom technology.The country’s most successful players，such as state-owned China Telecom and workerowned Huawei，are already expanding overseas，opening offices in the US，the UK and Europe.These companies，and especially the large number of Chines mobile phone and equipment makers，have benefited from cut throat competition within China，which has forced them to become lean and efficient enough to compete on a global scale.
The Competition in Telecommunication
This competition is set to intensify further as China continues to liberalize the industry，according to the rules of its accession into the World Trade Organization（WTO）.While all of the world’s largest telecom companies manufacture and sell equipment in China，the actual networks are dominated by a small number of stateowned giants.Because China regards the telecom industry as strategic，the country’s WTO accession terms retain some protections against foreign firms who were allowed to take 50%ownership of value-added services companies by 2004 but will only be able to own 49%of mobile and fixed-line services companies in 2007 and 2008，respectively.
In preparation for increased competition with the multinational telecom giantsChina has carried out a series of reforms and liberalizations.In fact，the long march to international competitiveness was properly started in 1994 with the creation of China Unicom as a rival to what was then the country’s only telecom provider，China Telecom.This move created a duopoly in which the two companies competed in the area of basic landline services.
Following the formation of the Ministry of Information Industries in 1998，China Telecom was split into four entities-China Telecom，China Mobile，China Paging，and China Satellite-In order to introduce further competition into the sector.In 2001China Telecom was further split into two regional companies.Following that reform the telecom industry was to be formally shared，and competed in，by China Telecom，China Netcom，China Mobile，China Unicom，China Sat and China Railcom.China Mobile and China Unicom basically compete for mobile subscriptions while the latest incarnation of China Telecom concentrates on fixed lines in Southern China and China Netcom controls fixed lines in the North.
