Broadband Speedup: User Choice Must Be Protected

With China Telecom and China Unicom proactively issuing "rectification" statements, the high-profile anti-monopoly investigation by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) into the broadband access market appears to be drawing to a close. However, many topics surrounding broadband speedup remain, such as the fiercely debated question of whether speedup should be free. In my view, on the issue of broadband upgrades, tariff reductions are still a secondary concern; the more important and fundamental question is whether users can actually get access — that is, when will we have the opportunity to be physically connected to fiber-optic broadband capabilities?

Against the backdrop of the surging broadband speedup wave, numerous "last mile" access challenges remain unresolved. Take Guangzhou as an example: over the past decade or more, broadband development has been dominated by ADSL over copper cables. Now that the transition from copper to fiber is underway, the line renovation alone is no small project. Even if telecom operators have the willingness to invest billions of yuan, construction work such as laying conduits and pulling fiber cables still takes time. New buildings may fare better, but how could the dense, decades-old cabling in old urban areas be sorted out without considerable effort? Most critically, based on my years of broadband experience, the key to the "last mile" problem lies not in construction investment or project progress, but in China's powerful property management companies, whose complex vested interests in broadband line construction ultimately determine what kind of broadband residents can access. Take the residential complex where I live as an example: the developer's vast majority of properties offer only one broadband service option — e家宽 — while all other broadband providers are barred from entry. Although national regulations explicitly prohibit such practices, and various media outlets have published no fewer than ten critical reports on this phenomenon over the years, the situation remains unchanged, and the slow speeds persist. Faced with such "dominant" real estate developers and property management companies, how can fiber-optic speedup ever be realized?

It should be noted that China's Telecommunications Regulation Ordinance has long clearly stipulated that telecommunications business operators shall not restrict, in any manner, telecommunications users from choosing telecommunications services lawfully provided by other telecommunications business operators. Furthermore, the Property Law stipulates that supporting telecommunications facilities should be considered part of the common facilities shared by property owners, and are among the supporting facilities that developers must construct when building residential complexes to meet the functional needs of the proprietary portions of buildings, and should be shared by the owners. However, having laws in place does not guarantee their enforcement. Without strong legal enforcement and protection, users have already lost even their basic right to choose broadband services — what point is there in discussing speedup?

----Excerpted from: Nanfang Daily