Carriers Accelerate Broadband Speeds to Vie for the 'Last Mile'

On March 30 this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) held a high-level mobilization and deployment conference for the broadband speed-up project. At the meeting, the MIIT planned that in 2012, the broadband popularization and speed-up project would add FTTH (fiber broadband) coverage to more than 35 million households, with over 50% of users adopting broadband access products of 4M and above, adding more than 20 million new fixed broadband Internet-connected households, expanding the coverage of wireless LAN in public hotspot areas, further promoting and popularizing broadband applications, and driving down unit prices.

China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile, which attended the meeting, also proposed their respective broadband speed-up targets for 2012. Meanwhile, carriers controlling broadband fiber resources have all put forward "fiber-to-the-x, copper retirement" (fiber-optic network construction) plans.

Thus, a top-down broadband speed-up "sports meet" has been launched in full swing. At the same time, as operators such as China Tietong were reported to have encountered unfair competitive treatment, Shanghai has specially established a third-party professional institution to regulate competition in the "last mile."

Shanghai Sample: Competing to Deploy "Fiber-to-the-x, Copper Retirement"

An important topic in broadband speed-up is "fiber-to-the-x, copper retirement" — replacing the current copper-core network with fiber-optic networks.

While broadband and fiber-optic projects across the country are being launched one after another and advancing rapidly, Shanghai, having proposed the strategy of accelerating the construction of a "smart city" as early as last year, has taken the lead in various Internet-related projects.

It can be said that, as the city with the highest average broadband speed in mainland China, the fiber-optic network battle in Shanghai largely reflects the layout of each carrier in this business. In particular, the competition for the "last mile" of broadband and fiber-to-the-home access, along with corresponding tariff price wars, has been the most intense.