Based on firsthand information obtained from interviews with senior figures in the Chinese telecommunications industry, this book presents a unique review and analysis of the evolution of Chinese telecommunications policy. It analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing new entrants, issues of ownership and interconnection, the broad economic background of 3G licensing, and the significant implications of China's accession to the WTO. These are fully analyzed within the context of the unfolding Chinese regulatory system.

Openness and competition sparked major advances in Chinese industry. Recent policy reversals emphasizing indigenous innovation seem likely to disappoint.

China's telecommunications industry has seen revolutionary transformation and growth over the past three decades. Chinese Internet users number nearly 150 million, and the PRC expects to quickly pass the US in total numbers of connected citizens. The number of mobile and fixed-line telephone users soared from a mere 2 million in 1980 to a total of nearly 800 million in 2007. China has been the most successful developing nation in history for spreading telecommunications access at an unparalleled rapid pace. This book tells how China conducted its remarkable "telecommunications revolution". It examines both corporate and government policy to get citizens connected to both voice and data networks, looks at the potential challenges to the one-party government when citizens get this access, and considers the new opportunities for networking now offered to the people of one of the world's fastest growing economies. The book is based on the author's fieldwork conducted in several Chinese cities, as well as extensive archival research. It focuses on key issues such as building and running the country's Internet, mobile phone company rivalry, foreign investment in the sector, and telecommunications in China's vibrant city of Shanghai. It also considers the country's internal "digital divide", and questions how equitable the telecommunications revolution has been. Finally, it examines the ways the PRC's entry to the World Trade Organization will shape the future course of telecommunications growth.

China's entry into the World Trade Organization offers China a rare opportunity to advance its communications capabilities, but the government must recognize that protecting its favored domestic companies and funding antiquated technology won't allow the country to benefit from everything WTO membership has to offer.China's entrance into the WTO has raised the stakes for domestic companies, particularly with the government expected to issue new telecommunications rules this year. There is tremendous growth potential in the Chinese telecommunications market, given that the World Bank estimates about three-quarters of the country's 1.3 billion citizens have never made a phone call.But those citizens won't be served by policies focused on government ownership and the creation of national champions. One concept that the Chinese government must grasp is that the creation of an advanced communications network is vital for economic growth overall, regardless of whether that network is indigenously owned or not.By placing the focus on the competitiveness of its state-owned firms, China is sacrificing both the development of a competitive domestic environment and the quality of its national communications infrastructure. By shutting out potential competitors, the Chinese are simultaneously passing over the latest communications technology as well as the investment capital that is needed to construct state-of-the-art infrastructure.

In the early 1990s, China started to reform its telecommunications regime by removing barriers to foreign and private investment and encouraging competition. This text applies the "Public Choice Plus" theory (developed in the study of economics) to the analysis of the policymaking process of China's telecommunications reforms. Guan is a senior fellow at the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy at the U. of Toronto.

Analyses China's telecommunications sector and policy and examines how it fits into China's economic and political reform process.

Chinese as well as European regulatory decisions need to consider regional particularities but insist on an implementation system that never loses sight of its goal. In the area of electronic communications policy, this goal is the establishment of a market environment that ensures innovation, high quality and affordable prices. The present survey aims at improving the process of knowledge exchange between European and Chinese experts and decision-makers in Information Society law and policy. The EU-China Information Society Project asked the authors to assess both the EU's and the Chinese status quo, and to bring together both perspectives together in a joint effort to learn from the EU experiences for the Chinese decision-making process today.

Communications and Information in China is a focused analysis of the four fundamentals of the Chinese communications and information sector: dynamic landscape, which includes, most importantly, status, trends, directions, initiatives and characteristics of the Chinese IT and communications industries; policy and regulatory framework, which represents a very hard-to-understand mish-mash of the Chinese political and regulatory structure that has significant impact on where, how and what Chinese IT related industries are heading to; ten most crucial regulatory and strategic issues that derive from China's domestic, political, economic and technological realities and controversies; and foreign involvement, which covers high stakes, critical challenges and contextual forces that international companies face. In-depth discussion also digs into what implications China's telecommunications industry reform and its WTO accession will have on foreign players who are involved in China's enormous but complex IT and communications market.

The structure, conduct, and performance of Chinese telecommunications are analyzed to determine whether reform has achieved specified policy objectives. Performance to date suggests that a more comprehensive reform is needed. However, the fragmented policy environment of the Chinese institutional framework makes large-scale reform difficult. Further deregulation of the telecommunication industry requires several related initiatives: reduction of entry barriers (to obtain achieve multiple centers of initiative), creation of a universal service fund (to defuse stakeholder concerns regarding access), and formation of a cross-sector antitrust regulatory agency (with a quot;special interestquot; in promoting competition where feasible). While these policies could further complicate decision-making in a fragmented institutional environment, each initiative is directed at neutralizing powerful stakeholders who can block or delay reform at present.

This book explains the history, current situation, market size and technological level of China's telecommunication industry in detail. It also provides an introduction to the main operators in China and their respective market shares and network technologies. Information about major equipment manufacturing enterprises and their major products is also provided, and their competitive strengths are analyzed. Finally, the book describes the evolution of China's telecommunication regulatory regime, the changes in telecommunication policies and the reform of regulatory practices. The impact of these reform measures is then briefly evaluated.