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.

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.

Expanding on the relationship between telecommunications and development, this work concentrates on the link between telecommunications and economic growth. China's telecoms and their bearing on the country's development are used as an example to further consider this relationship.

Before the 1990s, China's telecommunications sector was a lacklustre monopoly featured by poor-quality service and inadequate capacity. Today the country boasts a dynamic telecommunications industry with the world's largest communications network and user-base with over 460 million telephone subscribers. China's accession to the WTO in 2001 has opened this huge developing telecommunications market to foreign participation and investment. The authors examine the singularity of the Chinese experience in building up its extensive telecommunications network in merely a decade, by reviewing China's national industrial policies and institutional reforms within the industry. The reader will find in this volume a unique and in-depth analysis of the interplay between political and economic forces amidst the industry's structural overhaul and regulatory reforms. The accounts of industrial features and market conditions are enriched with up-to-date data, which are extremely useful for appreciating the development and prospects for this fast-growing market, set against the backdrop of China's accession to the WTO. Scholars of China or Asian studies and researchers of information-communications industry and Asian/China studies will find this work of great interest, as will governmental policymakers, both in China and beyond. For foreign business practitioners eyeing this market, this volume provides a helpful guide to understand China's various interests and public welfare considerations that motivate changes in policies towards foreign investment and participation.

This authoritative study explores China's rapidly evolving polity, economy, and society through the prism of its communication system. Yuezhi Zhao offers a multifaceted, interdisciplinary analysis of communication in China and its central role in the struggle for control during the country's rise to global power. The industry in all its forms--ranging from the news media to entertainment outlets to the Internet--has been a critical battleground among different social forces in this period of wrenching change. The author explores alterations in the structure and content of Chinese communication in light of the rapid evolution of state-society relations to reveal the profoundly contradictory, conflicted, and uncertain nature of China's ongoing transformation.

This edited volume is the first book-length study focusing entirely on mobile phone use in China. Drawing on examples from a wide range of contemporary situations in China and beyond, the contributors argue that the mobile phone is in fact an important means by which one can understand a rapidly changing China, and the developing culture of mobile phone usage reflects both the cultural norms and struggle of the people. Through a theoretical comparison of usage in the West and in China, the editors assert the uniqueness of China’s experience, highlighting that Chinese society is being exposed simultaneously to a rapid process of industrialization and cyberization. The contributors maintain that such density of experience under a compressed period combined with a thick cultural heritage and a country still under a dictating rule provides a unique situation and offers deep insights into Chinese culture in general. This work will be of great interest to all students and scholars of Asian communication studies, ICT and Chinese culture and society.

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.

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.