Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
Table of contents
1.
Telecommunications Industry in China..................................................................................... 4
1.1 History of telecommunication in China .............................................................................. 4
1.2 Changes in Telecommunications Environments ................................................................. 6
1.2.1 Strategies and Policies.............................................................................................. 6
1.2.2 State Statue Regarding Telecommunications ........................................................... 7
1.2.3 The Policy on Foreign Involvement ......................................................................... 7
1.2.4 Rapid Development in Special Economic Zone and Coastal Open Cities ............... 8
1.2.5 Overall Telecommunications Capabilities ................................................................ 8
1.3 The Current Ministry of Information Industry’s Structure in China ................................... 9
1.4 Key Services and the Level of Penetration of Services..................................................... 11
1.4.1 Telephone Services and Wireless Services ............................................................. 11
1.4.2 Data and Internet Services ..................................................................................... 13
1.5 The Factors Influencing Telecommunications Industry .................................................... 14
1.6 Telecommunications Market in Rural Areas in China ...................................................... 15
1.7 The Future of China’s Telecommunications Industry ....................................................... 16
1.7.1 Continued Growth in the Telecommunications Industry........................................ 16
1.7.2 Increasing Broadband Telecommunications Services ............................................ 17
1.7.3 Increasing Value-added Telecommunications Services and Information Technology
Expertise.......................................................................................................................... 17
1.7.4 An Increasing Competitive Environment ............................................................... 17
2. Telecommunication in Thailand .................................................................................................. 18
2.1 The History Background ................................................................................................... 18
2.2 Current Industry ................................................................................................................ 19
2.3 Recent and Projected Changes and New Services ............................................................ 21
2.3.1 Privatization ........................................................................................................... 21
2.3.2 Bridging the Digital Divide .................................................................................... 21
3.3 Development of ICT Policy Framework ................................................................... 22
2.3.4 The Government Policy ......................................................................................... 22
2.3.5 The New Services .................................................................................................. 22
2.4 The key Telecommunication Services ............................................................................... 23
2.4.1 Telephone ............................................................................................................... 23
2.4.2 Mobile Phone ......................................................................................................... 24
2.4.3 Pager....................................................................................................................... 25
2.4.4 Internet Service ...................................................................................................... 25
2.5 The Level of Penetration of Services ................................................................................ 26
2.6 The obstacles ..................................................................................................................... 29
3 Telecommunication in Russian Republic ..................................................................................... 30
3.1 History Overview .............................................................................................................. 30
3.2 Current Structure ............................................................................................................... 31
3.3 New Projects ..................................................................................................................... 32
3.4 Key Services ..................................................................................................................... 34
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
3.4.1 Fixed Telephone Service ........................................................................................ 34
3.4.2 Cellular Communications....................................................................................... 34
3.4.3 Internet Access ....................................................................................................... 35
3.4.4 Broadband Communications .................................................................................. 35
3.5 The level of penetration of services available ................................................................... 36
3.6 The Factors Influencing the Telecommunications Industry .............................................. 38
3.7 Organize a 1Mbps Internet Connection from Australia into Russia.................................. 40
4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 41
Appendix A ..................................................................................................................................... 42
Appendix B ..................................................................................................................................... 43
List of References ........................................................................................................................... 46
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
Summary
In this group assignment, we do some research about the telecommunications industry
in People’s Republic of China, Russian Republic, and Thailand. In each section, it can
be mainly divided into six parts, history and background, current structure and
regulation, telecommunications services, the level of services penetration, recent
changes, and the factors influencing telecommunications industry. Some tables and
figures are used to explore the development in the past and foresee the trends in
certain areas in telecommunications industry. The recent changes and level of services
penetration are the emphases in this research. Moreover, we mention the unbalance
development of telecommunications industry in China between urban cities and rural
areas. In the section of Russian Republic, a project about organizing a 1Mbps Internet
connection from Australia to Russian Republic is also be talked about.
In this research we want to give readers a clear mind of the situation about the
telecommunications
industry
and
help
investors
telecommunications industry in these three countries.
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master
the
trends
of
Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1. Telecommunications Industry in China
1.1 History of telecommunication in China
The use of media for communication purposes, such as light, dates back to antiquity
in China if we interpret communications in a broad sense. Thousands of years ago
Chinese began to use fire and smoke signals to convey a single piece of information
such as victory in a war or the foreign encroachment. However the real
telecommunication, what we talking about today has been developed in recent two
hundred years in China.
For the time before 1840, China was in the states of self-contained system, most of
the Chinese were proud of their great agricultural civilization, arts and early
inventions as paper and printing. They called their country China, which means
central empire in Chinese, and they were unwilling to keep the run of outside.
With the first Opium War broken out, everything was changed. The Qing imperial
court, the rulers of China, was shocked by the military power of the western countries
and forced to subscribe many unfair treaties involving its territory, politics, foreign
trade, and telecommunications right. After that the telecommunications and its
technologies began to be developed and spread in China. Therefore we can say that
the start of telecommunications in China was dominated by aggressive foreign
encroachment.
From the mid 1870s to the early 1990s, China’s telecommunications suffered a long
and rough process of development. There are three main themes we can indicate
during that period.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
First of all, it was China’s unremitting struggle for its own sovereignty in
telecommunications. In spite of differing and even conflicting political ideologies, the
rulers of China, the Qing imperial court, the Nationalists, and the Communists, all
keep struggles for the absolute control over telecommunications in the face of foreign
encroachment.
The second theme was the Chinese telecommunications industry’s outcry for adequate
support to accelerate its development. Although from the early 1980s, China’s
telecommunications industries do not have enough funds to keep experiment because
of limited national resources, poor technologies or sometimes even low priority from
the government, they never give up.
The last one was the monopolistic control over the posts and telecommunications
business by a national official organization. From Qing Dynasty to the People’s
Republic of China, this situation almost did not change until China joined the World
Trade Organization recently.
This part traces these themes over the past century to present a broad overview of the
history of the process of China’s telecommunications developments. It shows that
China’s telecommunications have gone through a very rough way and also gives us a
general idea of the background of telecommunications in China about thirty years ago,
an undeveloped and controlled by state situation.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1.2 Changes in Telecommunications Environments
The period from 1981 to 1993 was called the reform era because political struggles
stabilized. The door was open to outside world and all kinds of communications were
welcome by Chinese. During that time the telecommunications industry experienced a
quick growth and a lot of changes took place in the telecommunications environment.
Generally, the changing trends can be found in the following six areas.
1.2.1 Strategies and Policies
The Chinese leadership recognized that the telecommunications industry was a weak
area in the current economy. In order to improve the management, capabilities and
efficiency in the telecommunications industry so that they can meet the requirements
of the development of the whole country, a series of policies and regulations were
made. In those documents, the Post and Telecommunications (P&T) industry was
regarded as a priority industry, from which we can find that the Chinese government
put enough emphases on telecommunications. What is more, the profit tax of P&T
industry was adjusted to 10% while that of the other industries were 55%. This action
greatly accelerated the development of telecommunications and the service fees of
telecommunications were readjusted.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1.2.2 State Statue Regarding Telecommunications
Despite many internal regulations issued by the Ministry of Information Industry
(MII), which is also called Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) in the
past, there was no state statue on any aspect of telecommunications for a long time. In
1980, the MPT began to write a draft of Telecommunications Law of the People’s
Republic of China, and in 1982, the State Council and the Military Commission of the
Central
Party
Committee
passed
the
Regulations
on
the
Protection
of
Telecommunications Lines. After that telecommunications was protected by law on
black and white.
1.2.3 The Policy on Foreign Involvement
The open door policy did not make more overseas fund inflow into
telecommunications industries. Instead, the door of telecommunications market was
protected by the government. They look telecommunications as one of the national
sovereignties and should never fall into the hands of foreigners. Under this guideline,
foreign businesspeople were very hard to touch the fields of telecommunications
management and development. This situation did not change until the People’s
Republic of China joined the World Trade Organization.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1.2.4 Rapid Development in Special Economic Zone and Coastal
Open Cities
After 1980, five special economic zone and 14 coastal cities were open to the world
by the Chinese government. After several years the growth of economic and the
development of technologies in these cities are much quicker than the others. For
example, by 1991, the average telephone penetration rate grew to 18% in the special
economic zones while the nation average was just 1.29%. This trend seems to be
continued.
1.2.5 Overall Telecommunications Capabilities
Different from the past, China had a telecommunications network that contained
microwave, optical fibre and satellites. Long distance telecommunications systems
had already been completed and Internet seemed to be widely used within the
popularity of the computers.
From all above we can find that the telecommunications environment in China
becomes more and more exciting and acceptable for the investors. The government
keeps paying more and more attention on this area day by day.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1.3 The Current Ministry of Information Industry’s
Structure in China
As the MII organization is regarding as the administrative hierarchy of China’s
telecommunications industry, the structure and how it works will be discussed
following.
Ministry of Information Industry
Provinincial post & telecom
administrations ( PTAs)
Provincial capital administrations
of telecoms
Provincial governor
Provincial capital administrations
of posts
Prefectural/municipal bureaus of P&T
PTBs
County or township P&T
enterprises ( PTEs)
Branch offices of P&T
Figure 1.1 the structure of MII
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
At the top of the MII’s organization is the Provincial post & telecom administrations
(PTAs), whose function is overall planning and management of the sector. Then each
of the 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 3 provincial-level municipalities has
its own posts and telecommunications administration (PTA). At next level, they are
prefectural and municipal of posts and telecommunications (PTBs). Below them are
county or township posts and telecommunication enterprises (PTEs), which operate
local service networks in the county capitals and connect the lines into the around
rural areas. Furthermore, there are many branch office operating exchanges under
PTEs at the village level.
The structure of PTA, the highest level in MII’s organization, is showed in Figure 1.2
below.
PTA
Long Distance Unit
Material Supply
Company
Research Institute
Rural Telephone
Company
Directory Company
Designing Institute
11 Prefectural or
Municipal P&T Offices
Newspaper Office
3 Schools
Employee Housing
Units
64 County
P&T Offices
Commercial Hotel
Figure 1.2 Administrative Unit of a typical PTA
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1.4 Key Services and the Level of Penetration of Services
The China’s telecommunications industry provides quite a lot of services including
Telephone Services, Mobile Service, and Internet Services etc. Each of the services
also provides many sub-services.
1.4.1 Telephone Services and Wireless Services
Telephone Services contain the services such as telephone lines connection, telephone
accounts open, fix services, terminations services, free call services for emergency
situations, and the supervisory services, from which managers can get the feedback
from the customs to improve the performance of telecommunications industries.
The wireless communications networks and services achieved great success in the
past 16 years in China. Since 1987 the first wireless communication equipment was
imported, the amount of people using wireless communications networks and services
had jumped from 700 to 234,470,000. By the end of July 2003, the percent of GSM
user in China had reached 1/3. The capability of wireless communications networks in
China have been increased with a marked speed, more than 60% per year, since 1998.
The GSM wireless networks have covered all the cities and more than 99% areas of
county. In 2002, the income of the mobile industry occupied 46.7% of the total
income of information industry and became the main industry in telecommunications
industry. The income of the manufactories of wireless components in 2001 was
twenty times as much as that in 1998. The mobile communications industry and
services not only accelerate the development of the whole telecommunications
industry but also speed the growth of economic in China.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
The mobile services in China are using two-side charge method, which is quite
different from here. It means whenever people use mobile phone, both sides, the
sender and the receiver, should pay for the communication fee. Some people believe it
is unfair for receivers pay for the calls, but more people regard it as a satisfiable
method. One of the chief managers of telecommunications industry explained that the
fact that both sides should pay for the communication fees does not mean people have
paid more money to get the service. By using this charge method, there is no trouble
about the balance between telecommunications companies when customs use
different companies’ services. Some developed countries, such as America, Canada,
and Singapore, use this method as well. There is several advantage of the model.
Firstly, at the same situation the cost is reduced by sharing the bill. Secondly, it
reduces the competitions between telecommunication companies and encourages the
cooperation. Lastly, because there are no problems about the income balance between
the companies, the cost can be adjusted more reasonable by each company.
Figure 1.3 mainlines/mobiles per 1000 people
The bar graph above shows the information about mainlines of telephone and the
users of mobile in China from 1996 to 2000. In 1996 there were less than 5
percentages of Chinese obtained telephone lines. Then it increased every year. By the
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
end of 2000 there were about 11 percentage people in China had telephone lines. To
the mobile, the trend is same. At the begin of 1996 there were quite a few people
using mobile, but after 5 years, it seems increased more than fifteen times. All the
information above indicates that the Chinese telecommunications was just beginning,
but it has a large market and a bright increasing future.
1.4.2 Data and Internet Services
The main providers of data and Internet services in China include China Telecom
Group, China Netcom Group and China Unicom. Data and Internet Services have the
greatest development in all the services. Usage of the Internet in China has jumped
rapidly in the last several years due to reduced Internet access charges, the declining
cost of internet access devices, increased wire line penetration and increased offerings
of Internet content and applications. Historically, data services in China were
primarily comprised of low-bandwidth X.25 services and digital data network, or
DDN services. With the rise of the Internet and the wider adoption of broadband
applications, as well as increased demand for corporate networks and internal
communications, these data services can not satisfy the customs any more, especially
from high-usage business customers. Therefore, higher-bandwidth DDN services and
more sophisticated broadband data services such as frame relay and asynchronous
transfer mode, or ATM services appeared to meet the requirement. According to the
Ministry of Information Industry, subscribers of DDN services increased from
approximately 358,500 in 2000 to about 438,600 in 2001 and users of frame relay and
ATM services increased from approximately 44,800 in 2000 to approximately 75,700
in 2001. Broadband access networks allowing high-speed transmission continue to be
deployed and expanded quickly in China. They mainly utilize digital subscriber line,
DSL, or optical fibre connecting local networks. The rapid development of broadband
access services is driven by the increase of Internet content and application offerings.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1.5 The Factors Influencing Telecommunications Industry
There are quite a lot of elements affect telecommunications industry such as the
support from the government, the development of telecommunications technologies,
and the charges of telecommunications fees. Among all these factors, the demand
from the customs is the most important one under today’s market economy
environment. In this report, the domain name is discussed as an example to indicate
how the demand affects the telecommunications industry in China. With the
e-economy coming true, more and more people and companies in China begin to
tough Internet and use it to build their own business. The situation results more and
more people applied for a domain name on Internet years by years.
Date
.com.cn .net.cn .org.cn .gov.cn .ac.cn .edu.cn
.cn
aadn
Total
1997/3
747
220
17
34
186
254
237
1695
1998/3
4147
498
153
431
334
365
531
6459
1999/3
16752
1459
493
1210
464
568
1064
22010
2000/3
60176
6936
1524
2972
581
867
2466
75522
2001/3 102812 16569
2725
4784
701
1162
3712
132465
2002/3
3010
6127
664
1396
3243
127678
2003/3 145719 21444 10296
8691
1744
1695
4712
289832
99844 13394
95531
Table 1.1
This table is taken from Statistics on Domain Name Under China Internet Network
Information Center. It shows the situation of Domain Name in China from March
1997 to 2003.
It can be found easily on March 1997, there just a few people, organizations or
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
companies interested in occupying a Domain name. The total number is just about
1695, what is just about one-fourth of the 1998. From 1998 to 1999, around 18,000
domain name were applied and to the year 2000, the number has arrived 75,522. In
2001 the number doubled, but it decreased a little the next year. It seems the
increasing tread was stopped in that year. However by the year 2003, the amount
jumped again. It reached 289,832, which is about 170 times as much as that of 1997.
Among all domain name, com.cn has the much larger number than the others for the
seven years because this domain name refers to companies. The second largest
domain name is net.cn except the first two years in the table, followed by org.cn and
gov.cn. We can find that in 2002 there were much more organizations applying the
domain name than the other years. For edu.cn it keeps a 20% increase in all the seven
years. All the amount of domain name increased except 2002, and this trend seems to
be continued. For more information about Statistics on Domain Name Under China
Internet Network Information Center, please check the Appendix B.
1.6 Telecommunications Market in Rural Areas in China
China has been seen as an ever-growing market for telecommunications in recently
years, but such significant growth is mainly located on the market in urban areas.
Most IT and Telecom companies are located in the big cities and put the emphases on
the cities. Meanwhile, the rural areas seem to be ignored although there is quite large
population. However, for the perspective of telecommunications industry, business
will have to move there eventually.
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There is just a small proportion of peasants ready to spend their money on
telecommunications products and services, but they have the great population. The
logical conclusion is that with such large population, it would be a considerable
market. Furthermore, with the economic growth of national economy, overall the
peasants are getting richer, although it is slower than that of their urban brethren.
Moreover, the government has been working hard to push up the penetration of
telephone connection in the vast rural areas. After striving for many years, the goals
such as ‘every village is connected into the telephone network’ or ‘building telephone
villages (a village with high penetration rate of telephone services)’ have come true.
And their efforts have been rewarded with a stable increase of rural telephone
subscribers. Under the situation that the market of urban areas have nearly become
saturated and difficult to keep the rapid growth, the rural areas will be the right market
and contribute to incessant increase in china’s telecommunications market.
1.7 The Future of China’s Telecommunications Industry
We believe that the future of telecommunications industry in China will follow these
trends.
1.7.1 Continued Growth in the Telecommunications Industry
We believe that the telecommunications industry in china will keep the increase
within the development of China’s economy. And the relatively low wireless and
Internet penetration in China, although the number of the subscribers is large, is
expected to growth incessantly.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1.7.2 Increasing Broadband Telecommunications Services
With the e-economy and the growing multimedia content and applications in China,
the demand for broadband telecommunications services will greatly accelerate the
market and services in those areas.
1.7.3 Increasing Value-added Telecommunications Services and
Information Technology Expertise
As the demand of telecommunications systems has been increased, it can be
forecasted that the demand for value-added telecommunications service will largely
increase. For example, when companies purchase or rent the telecommunications
systems, they want not only hardware but also software, services and expertise such
as how to manage the database.
1.7.4 An Increasing Competitive Environment
The incessant increasing telecommunications market will attract more companies
invest in China’s telecommunications industry. Moreover the development of
telecommunications technologies will make the charge of telecommunications
products and services cheaper than before, which will result more companies have the
ability to provide these services and products. Furthermore, after China joined the
WTO,
the
government
telecommunications industry.
allows
foreign
companies
invest
in
China’s
All these will make China become a competitive
environment.
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
2. Telecommunication in Thailand
2.1 The History Background
In 1876, the first telephone was invented in U.S.A. Five years later, in 1881; the Minister of
Defense, Prince Phanurangsriswangwongs, imported a telephone system into Thailand. The Prince
installed the first telephone line from Bangkok to Paknam, in Samutprakarn, for the purpose of
informing Bangkok of the news concerning the arrival and departure of ships at Paknam. The first
telephone system was serving a grand total of 60 subscribes initially. It was based on the magneto
and only covered 86 kilometers but it was in use for over 20 years.
In 1954, the Telephone Organization of Thailand was established. It was a state enterprise under
the Ministry of Transport and Communications, which was the old Telephone Technician Unit
under The Post and Telegraph Department with 732 staff members and an initial budget of 50
million Baht, its main responsibility was to provide telephone services in Bangkok Metropolis,
which included Wat Lieb, Bangrak, Ploenchit and Samsaen Exchanges.
In 1984, an automatic international telephone service was introduced to consumers in Bangkok. In
1986, A 470 MHz Nordic Mobile Telephone via the SPC network was introduced.
It was the first time that subscribers were allowed to purchase their own receivers in 1987, whose
quality was certified by the Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT), as well as to lay telephone
lines within their own premises. The telecommunication networks of Thailand were connected
with those of Malaysia using a fiber optic and microwave system two years later. The telephone
lines have expanded to 3,000,000 telephone lines until 1992. And a trunk mobile radio service
catering to various business groups was introduced.
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Until 2002, the TOT was changed from the state-owned enterprise under the control of Transport
and Communication Ministry to a private company named TOT Corporation Public Company
Limited on July 31.
2.2 Current Industry
These years, the extraordinary growth in economy has emerged the demand for
telecommunication infrastructure such as telephone installation and other services like data
communication. At present the telecommunications sector contribute to about 3% of Thailand's
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), although telecommunications services and associated areas of
business are becoming more and more important.
The fixed line services currently are mainly provided by 3 companies with a state run organization,
Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT) that was mentioned in part 1, and two private
companies: Telecom Asia Corporation (operating lines in the Bangkok area), Thai Telephone &
Telecommunication PCL (with a network of fixed lines outside of Bangkok). TOT has granted a
25-year-concessions to the two private companies though an innovatively Build-Transfer-Operate
(BTO) scheme projected by the government.
Now TOT has covered whole nation with 3.56 million telephone lines while TA has 2.6 million
lines in Bangkok Metropolitan Area and TT&T has 1.5 million in provincial network. However,
not all the TOT lines have been used. Only 1.439 million lines have been sold in Bangkok, and in
the provinces area only 1.437 million. Therefore the TOT still has about 400,000 unused lines in
Greater Bangkok, and about 300,000 unused lines in the provinces. Of TA's 2.6 million lines,
1.535 million have been sold. Another large telephone operator within the market is the Thai
Telephone and Telecommunication (TT&T) Company, which has 1.5 million lines with 1.18
million sold.
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The international communications services are provided by a state run organization,
Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT). Advanced Information System has been awarded a
10-year concession by TOT to provide public telephones. TOT cooperated with the State Railway
of Thailand has installed a Fiber Optic cable transmission system for domestic
telecommunications services. In respect of this arrangement, Comlink Co Ltd got a 20-year
concession agreement. To be independent to this, TOT has agreed to reward a 20-year concession
to Jasmine Submarine Telecommunication Co Ltd to be a joint investor in the installation of
submarine fiber optic cables. Thailand has started Internet services in 1995, CAT
(Communications Authority of Thailand) has established a Thailand Internet Exchange Services,
and there are 18 ISPs (Internet Services Provider) operating in Thailand now.
Mobile telephone system came into market in Thailand from 1986 and only the analog services
are available at that time. Then came with the revolution of digitization. At present there are 7
services providers in Thailand with 2 state organizations who provide mobile telephone services in
Thailand. Details of these providers are as follows:
TOT
Analogue NMT 470
since 1986
CAT
Analogue AMPS 800- Band A
since 1987
AIS
Analogue NMT 900
since 1990 (TOT)
Total Access Communications/TAC
Analogue AMPS 800-Band B
since 1991 (CAT)
AIS
Digital GSM 900
since 1994 (TOT)
TAC
Digital PCN 1800 (World phone)
since 1994 (CAT)
DPC
Digital PCN 1800 (Hello 1800)
since 1997 (CAT)
WCS
Digital PCN 1800
(CAT)
Tawan
Digital CDMA 800
since 1998 (CAT)
About trunked mobile services, World Radio Co Ltd got a 15-year concession from CAT in this
area. And Acumen Co ltd has got a 15-year concession from TOT from 1991 on integrated satellite
business network. Ministry of Transport and Communications awarded a 30-year concession to
Shinawatra Satellite to operate the Thaicom satellite system with effect 1991.
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2.3 Recent and Projected Changes and New Services
2.3.1 Privatization
The government proposed to privatize the two biggest stated-owned organizations TOT and CAT.
After the cabinet endorsed the TOT privatization plan, TOT has been registered with the name
TOT Corporation Public Company Limited
(TOT Corp.) on July 31, 2002. CAT also arranged
to change to CAT Telecom Limited for the telecommunications business and Thailand Post
Limited for the postal business in November 2002.
The privatization will encourage other private companies to share the market of
telecommunication industry. And the finish of the monopoly shows that the country began to
deregulate the telecommunication industry and welcome all the companies to contribute to the
development of the telecommunication industry. It also ensures a free and fair environment of the
investment without the government’s help on the state owned organizations.
2.3.2 Bridging the Digital Divide
In order to provide the publics with an equal access opportunity to the Internet, Thailand has
installed more than 800 Internet booths in every district of the country since July 2001.
Thailand has just implemented a new educational Internet network scheme named "EdNet project".
The object of EdNet is to boost learning system in all academic levels from primary schools to
universities. TOT is demanded to supply network infrastructure to support this project. In the
beginning, Thailand will provide phone lines to about 43,000 schools around the country to access
Internet with dial-up modems by this year.
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3.3 Development of ICT Policy Framework
The National Information Technology Committee authorized the National IT Policy Framework,
namely IT 2010, on 3 October 2001 and by the Cabinet on 19 March 2002. This new IT policy
would last for 10 years, from 2001-2010. IT2010 has adjusted the key development objectives to
exploit the benefits of information and communications technology to move Thailand to the
“Knowledge-Based Society and Economy (KBS/KBE)”. Therefore, the project not only
emphasizes on the development of the “technology” itself, but also on the good use of ICT that
would drive the economic and social development of the whole nation. As an important part of the
telecommunication, information technology is playing a main role in the development of the
society today.
2.3.4 The Government Policy
The purpose of Telecommunication potential policy is to support the infrastructure of transport
and communication network and to develop an advanced and convenient telecommunication
system for national and global linkage and provides information technology for people and
prepare a free environment of the telecommunication market for the international investment.
2.3.5 The New Services
More and more new services and technologies will lead the telecommunication industry into a
new era.
Thai Mobile
"Thai Mobile”, a new mobile phone service with GSM1900, is available in the Thai market for
customers now. Thai Mobile has already begun an experimentation service since March 2002 and
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would be commercially launched at the end of this year. At present, two mobile exchanges and
500-radio base stations are being installed in the Bangkok metropolitan area. The network will be
upgraded to the third generation technology and expanded nationwide in the future.
TOTWeb.net
TOT supplied TOTweb.net. It’s a web site via which the customers could check their balance, pay
theirs fixed phone bills, subscribe a new phone number and register to other services, such as SPC
supplementary services.
WAP Technology
The WAP technology on the mobile phone was invested with $200 millions by the AIS. The
customer can access the information they need to know though the mobile phone. But the future
development of this technology will depend on the market demand for and the success of the WAP
services.
2.4 The key Telecommunication Services
The telecommunication services in Thailand mainly separated into 4 methods: Telephone, Mobile
Phone, Pager, and Internet Service.
2.4.1 Telephone
Telephone services are mainly dominated by TOT, who installs and assign telephone numbers but
clients have to buy their handsets. TOT now supplies 9 main services for phone use including: 1.
Eight special services for home phone use such as call forwarding services and conference call
services. 2. Multi-hunting system service that ensures your company will not miss any call. 3. The
Y-tel 1234 economy long distance telephone service that is offered at a rate of approximately
37%-70% lower than normal via a IP network. 4. 1800 Free Call that allows the caller to make
calls free while the receiving party is charged. 5. One Number service that will connect customer
to the nearest branch or office when the customer calls the number. 6. TOT Postpaid that allows
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customer to use a personal PIN card either from fixed line telephone or public telephones in the
whole nation. 7. Private net that assists you to control the telephone usage and the long distance
telephone cost between your offices and speed up the communication between the branches. 8. Pin
Phone 108 that offers you the highest level of convenience in making phone calls both local and
long-distance. You can call from anywhere, whether it is at home, at the office, or even from a
public telephone. 9. I-BOX 1278 that is voice messaging & fax service.
Also there are public telephones situated all over the city and country: There are 3
types of public telephones available throughout the country: 1. Local Public
Telephones. 2. Local and Long Distance Public Telephone. 3. International Dial
Telephone.
2.4.2 Mobile Phone
There are many mobile phone companies in Thailand. The competitiveness is high so the price for
handsets is getting cheaper. And there are also many bonuses when pursuing a service. There are
five systems of mobile phone now available:
1. 470 NMT.
2. Worldphone Digital 1800.
3. Worldphone New 800.
4. GSM 2 Watt 900.
5. GSM 1800.
These systems belong to Shin Corporation and Total Access Communication, two major providers
in Thailand. And in Thailand, you have to get a work permit to purchase a GSM mobile handset.
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2.4.3 Pager
It seems that Pagers are so popular because the cheap price and the monthly service fee. Also it is
convenient to carry and there are up-to-date designs. Most pagers are used as alarm clocks,
dictionary, organizers and personal secretaries. Several paging services offer both English and
Thai messages and sender can send the message over the Internet via paging service website.
Pager outlets are located throughout Bangkok and upcountry, covering almost 76 provinces in
Thailand.
2.4.4 Internet Service
Internet Service was first introduced into Thailand in 1994. Time passed by, now the Internet has
firmly established a huge growing market. And it becomes more convenient to access the Internet.
Web tools are available easily from IT shops as well as bookstores or subscription to Internet
service providers. The cost of the services are getting cheaper and cheaper because of the high
competition between the ISP's. The number one store in Bangkok is Pantip Plaza for all computer
and Internet equipment. The biggest ISP provider in Thailand is Internet Thailand.
With the improvement of the Internet services, more and more Internet connections are expected
to be broadband-based. To prepare for the coming evolution of the telecommunication industry,
the Telephone Organization of Thailand is allowing more data communication providers into the
market to meet the growing demand for Internet Service throughout the country. The six major
broadband service providers include the following companies:
1, Winstar International.
2. Shin Corps' Advanced Data Network Communications
3. United Communication Industry's United Broadband Technology
4. Lenso Datacom
5. Samart Broadband Services
6. Synergy Co. Ltd (in the process of data-com leasing deal with TOT)
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Winstar International and Synergy Co. Ltd. are both new broadband service providers in the Thai
market. All the 6 companies have signed a contract with TOT for a license to be able to provide
service on TOT's data-com network for the next fifteen years.
2.5 The Level of Penetration of Services
The demands for telecommunication services seemed have been dropped from the economic crisis.
After a few years, the demands began to increase with the development of the economy and the
advances in technologies. The services are cheaper and the consumers are encouraged to purchase
a suitable service. Until 1999, there are 62 million people in Thailand. And the statistics about
telecommunications are showed as follows,
Telephone Stats
Population
62 Million
Installed fixed line telephones
7.6 Million
Subscribed fixed line telephones
5.2 Million
Public telephones
105,803 Lines
Cellular phone subscribed
2.6 Million
Paging subscribers
1.4 Million
Telecom Per 1,000 people
Population
62 Million
Telephone Main Lines (per 1,000 people)
83.5
Telephone Main Lines in Bangkok (per 1,000 people)
361.1
Personal Computers (per 1,000 people)
21.6
Radios (per 1,000 people)
232
Mobile Phones (per 1,000 people)
32.5
Television Sets (per 1,000 people)
236
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All the companies including the TOT, CAT and other private companies, are paying much
attention on researching the development of overseas telecommunications technology such as 3G
technology and analyzing local consumer demand for such services. The Public telephone
switched network is changing into B-ISDN now for the sake of the development.
Mobile telecommunications markets are rapidly increasing. At present, there are some 2,600,000
mobile phone users in Thailand, with wide scope for expansion of networks across the country. So
do the Internet services. Numerous Internet café businesses come out and e-commerce
opportunities are attracting more and more people. The traditional 56K line speed seems to be out
of time, people begin to desire for the high-speed Internet services. And the broadband network
has already been put into use and it will become more popular in the future.
As an important role in communications today, the Internet in Thailand has made a extraordinary
progress. Now, Thailand has more than 6 million Internet users. 4,794 schools are online with
SchoolNet Thailand. 78.505 Internet hosts under .th top level domain and 6.282 Internet domains
under .th.
Year
Year A.D.
Users
Source
2534
1991
30
NECTEC
2535
1992
200
NECTEC
2536
1993
8,000
NECTEC
2537
1994
23,000
NECTEC
2538
1995
45,000
NECTEC
2539
1996
70,000
NECTEC
2540
1997
220,000
Internet Thailand/NECTEC
2541
1998
670,000
Internet Thailand/NECTEC
2542
1999
1,500,000
ISP Club/NECTEC
2543
2000
2,300,000
ISP Club/NECTEC
2544
2001
3,500,000
2545
2002
4,800,000
NECTEC (estimate)
2546
2003
6,000,000
NECTEC (estimate)
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NSO/NECTEC (household
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Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
Recent policy development such as IT2010 aimed to move Thailand to a Knowledge-based
Society and Economy showed that the government realized the importance of the Internet in
today’s society. Another policy to ensure the free competitive investment environment will
attract more and more foreign companies.
The privatization will emerge the private companies to develop new technology and perfect their
services. And the consumer will have more choice when choose a telecommunication services.
Coming out of the period of recession, most Thai telecommunications companies are experiencing
a hard time. Many have started to turn around debt into capital and seeking to invest in foreign
high technology equipment. A number of foreign telecommunication companies appeared via joint
venture relations with local companies in recent times. This is not only helping companies through
the restructuring process, but also allowing them to prepare for open competition following the
anticipated liberalization of the Thai market place. The market of telecommunication is booming.
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2.6 The obstacles
Although there is a lot of significant development in telecommunication industry, there are still
some obstacles.
First of all, choosing the new National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) has been made in
almost no progress, which was supposed to have been in position in October 2002. The NTC is
supposed to have considerable power and political tussling over the suitability of its proposed
members has dogged the selection process; allegations of vested interests abound. Because of
six-year terms and difficulties to be removed of the members, finding the right people is very
difficult.
Secondly, it’s difficult to make the progress of the framework to convert concessions, which is
granted to private operators by state agencies. This actually has affected the authorities' desire for
speedy privatization of the Telephone Organization of Thailand and the Communications Authority
of Thailand. They were supposed to be listed on the stock exchange between April and June of 2002.
But a lot effort has been made to privatize the 2 state owned telecommunication agencies.
Thirdly, the variety choices when choosing a new technology for telecommunication network may
puzzle the telecommunication companies. The company may invest a lot of money on a technology
that will not be popular. The company should have a crystal clear idea of the direction of the
technology. The leader of the companies must be well versed in such matters. Otherwise, there will
be more hardships. And also the variety choices will puzzle the consumer, the communication
between different telecommunication systems will be a main problem.
Forth, although the government is developing the Internet, there are still some people do not realize
the importance of the Internet because of the lack of the knowledge.
There are some obstacles, but the telecommunication industry will make extraordinary progress
with the effort of the government and the telecom companies.
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3 Telecommunication in Russian Republic
3.1 History Overview
From 1832 P. L. Shilling constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph apparatus,
there started a revolution in the field of telecommunication systems. Since then a lot
of new means of telecommunication have been invented. In 1884, the state didn’t give
privilege to private developers and started the installation task by itself. By the time
the Bolshevik Revolution had ended, urban telephone proportion in the U.S. was 20
times that of Russian. One of the effects of the 1921 New Economic Policy, which
intended to increase productivity through partial liberalization, is that it created an
extremely fragmented telephone system. The telecommunication market, which was
treated as a natural monopoly in most countries, was privatized, allowing many small
companies to build city or community based infrastructure. However, low
collaboration between these companies leaded to different standards and little
interconnectivity. The telecommunication industry was neglected throughout the
communist era until the middle 1980s, when Gorbachev came into power.
Informatization inspired greater investment in connectivity and telecommunication.
One of the goals of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (1981-1985) was to dramatically
increase the number of telephones in both rural and urban regions to 43% and 33%
respectively. The goal was extended by the next Five-Year Plan, which aimed to
provide 80% telephone usage by the year 2000. When the Soviet Union signed the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1990, it opened a door for foreign
investment. Siemens and Alcatel, which are two of Europe's telecom giants, opened
production factories in the USSR. The greatest benefit was to increase international
connectivity.
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3.2 Current Structure
With 145 million populations, and a geographical area 70 times larger than the UK,
Russia has a huge potential to develop its own telecommunication industry.
As a result of privatization in 1992, the Ministry of Communications controlled the
public service telephone network and its direct managerial responsibilities. Since
1992, 4,500 new operators have entered the market, and the number of private
companies continues to grow. But traditional (state-controlled) operators still control
85% of the public telecommunications networks. In domestic telephone and related
telecommunications, joint-stock companies control the development. In long-distance
and international services, a new organization, Russian Telecommunications
(Rostelekom), which consists of several small operations, is in the significant position.
Despite of the change of ownership, only about 14 percent of Russia's 24.4 million
telephones were located outside urban areas in 1995, but there are more than 10
million persons waiting for telephone installation, and only 34,100 pay telephones
were available for long-distance calls. What’s more, almost all of Russia's lines are
analog, as opposed to digital, and therefore make for slow data transmission and long
delays. In accordance with standard European practice, Russian Internet service
providers charge by the minute, access fees are astronomical. Average monthly
charges have been estimated to be $150 up to $1500, while the average Russian's
salary, after the 1998 economic crisis, is $200 per month. It is difficult for Russia to
develop its telecommunications only by herself. Foreign investment is so essential for
the growth of telecommunications in Russia.
The regulatory framework of telecommunications in Russia remains weak, but it is
maturing. The chief Law on Communications was enacted in 1995, but the lines of
regulatory authority have not been clearly defined. The Ministry of Communications
is the chief regulatory agency for civilian communications, but military and national
securities are out of the control. As Russian telecommunications systems develop, the
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regulatory issues are including frequency allocations, standardization of equipment,
levels of competition, and establishment of optimal user rates. The military and
internal security agencies have had priority use of most wireless frequencies as before.
Standardization is needed so that older equipment can operate with the new ones on
expanded systems. Telecommunications competition, which varied in the early
post-Soviet years, requires a uniform policy. And the Ministry of Communications has
not yet established affordable telephone rates to the users.
3.3 New Projects
The entry of computer intelligence into the network and terminals since the late 1970s
has led to a fundamental change in telecommunications. And at the same time new
broadband transmission technologies, such as fiber optics and satellites are
introduced.
The combination of computer intelligence and telecommunications makes the
telecommunications increase dynamics and efficiency and decrease the cost. First,
introducing digital network has meant that many functions inside the network can be
performed outside the network. Second, services are increasing. Telecommunications
exchanges can perform many new functions in addition to switching simple calls.
Digitization of the network was originally developed to allow efficient telephone
operation. Now it mainly focuses on the switching centers and the long distance links
between these centers. ISDN is the natural consequence of digitization. It supports a
wide range of voice and non-voice applications in the same network. ISDN, which
allows the simultaneous use of voice and data channel via the existing telephone
copper wire, offers the opportunity of operation the whole network economically.
ISDN opens a new room for network to develop according to users’ choice and
demand. That is value-added service. Value-added service represents the higher aim of
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combination of telecommunication and computer. According to the Green Paper, “two
facts stand out regarding these developing telecommunications markets: they are an
essential part of the emerging information-based service economy; and they are
specialized, innovative, and therefore very different from the centrally provided
telecommunications of the past”.
Increasing functions of the network also needs high transmission speed and capacity.
Thus fiber optics is introduced. The conventional telephone voice channel works with
a bandwidth of 3.1 kHz, while infrared light has a frequency 100,000 million times
greater than it. The attraction of the higher bandwidth cable is to allow new services,
such as video communications. The introduction of fiber optic cable will bring about a
further combination of telematics and TV broadcasting. For Russian the most
important international telecommunications facilities during 1993-1995 were
submarine fiber optic line to Denmark, in the Russian northwest, to Japan/Korea, in
the east, and to Palermo, Italy in the south. And it was planned to install links to
Istanbul, Turkey, Odessa, Ukraine and Novorossiysk in 1996. The submarine Black
Sea Fiber Optic Cable System, which will link Russia with Bulgaria, Greece and
Cyprus, was on the plan in 1997-1998.
Since 1965 the first geosynchronous communication satellite – Early Bird relayed
telephone calls and television across the Atlantic for the first time, satellite
communications have seen dramatic advances. It has more power available for
on-board transmission, has increasingly lengthened life times, and has increased
substantially the efficiency of use of the limited radio spectrum. Rostelekom's existing
network of international satellite channels is leased from several Russian satellite
communications operators. At the end of 1995, there were 1571 channels established
via satellite links, including 1182 digital channels. In 1996 to 1997, it was planned to
carry out a gradual transfer of all the analog satellite circuits to digital channels in
fiber optic cables and satellite systems. Further development of the satellite network
will be performed on a limited scale for remote areas, which is lack of terrestrial and
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submarine services.
3.4 Key Services
The mainly telecommunications services in Russian Republic include following ones.
3.4.1 Fixed Telephone Service
Fixed telephone service is one of the most important services of the
telecommunication industry, but this service offered by telecommunication companies
in Russia is not as good as which is offered in the other developed countries. For this
service, this report will describe in detail in the next section.
3.4.2 Cellular Communications
As a technology, mobile communications have trans-border availability. Digital
cellular communications, the second generation of mobile communications
technology, present a unique opportunity for the introduction of a pan-European
system. GSM standard dominated the market, while ADMPS/TDMA and NMT-450
operators respectively had 11.6% and 6% of the market. Moscow Cellular
Communications (MCC) and Delta Telecom have completed pilot projects in Moscow
and St. Petersburg based on CDMA-450 technology. Cellular operators are
implementing new technologies, including Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Insufficient content services and low
consumer purchasing power are the major barriers to the growth of mobile Internet
services and devices.
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3.4.3 Internet Access
With the convergence of computer, a broad range of new services is offered. Because
of the digitization of ISDN, it allows voice, data, text and simple video
communications on the existing network. ISDN creates an opportunity for digital
network. The services offered by ISDN benefit to users, telephone companies and the
industry. For users, there is a fast, flexible and reliable system to meet the needs, such
as facsimile at 64Kbit/s, teletex at 64Kbit/s, alpha-geometric and alpha-photographic
videotex at 64Kbit/s. For telephone companies, there is increasing revenue from new
services and a growing use of the network. Internet access revenue exceeded $228
million in 2000 and estimated at $250 million in 2001 in Russia. It reduces the costs
in the local network, improves operations and maintenance efficiency as well. For the
whole industry, there is an increased market volume for equipment for the provision
of new services.
3.4.4 Broadband Communications
Broadband networks make available rates of data transfer even higher than those
offered by ISDN. The nature of broadband services is to extend and combine of
existing services such as cable television, videoconferencing, high-speed data transfer
for such applications as CAD and general computer mainframe-computer mainframe
transfer. For users, broadband communications are associated with high speed and
high quality communications. For industry, broadband communication will provide
more
quickly
communications,
such
as
videoconferencing,
CAD,
mobile
telecommunications, electronic mails. Broadband is in its infancy in Russia.
According to investment firm Brunswick UBS Warburg, around 15,000 customers are
subscribed to ADSL, cable TV, and asymmetric satellite services. Access to
broadband may become one of the most significant developments in the next decade.
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology is one of the most promising
technologies because of its low expenditure compared to other methods, such as
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fiber-optic cable, satellite, broadband wireless access (BWA). And the inadequate
fixed line infrastructure in Russia presents a good opportunity for wireless
technologies. Multi-channel Microwave Distribution System (MMDS), which is used
to broadcast TV programming in the regions, is rapidly developing in Russia. In the
fall 2001, the Ministry of Communications approved radio frequencies for the second
MMDS plan covering 78 of Russia's 89 regions.
3.5 The level of penetration of services available
The current telephony infrastructure of Russia inherits the old system, which was built
in the age of former Soviet Union. It is highly centralized in order to supply the
requirements of defense and security. Therefore the level of penetration is a little
lower in the Europe. By 1994, for fixed telephone services, Russia ranked 33rd in the
world, and 21st in the Europe, the penetration is about 14 telephones per 100 persons.
There were only 27.6 million telephones in Russia at the end of 1996, of which 19.7
million were private; this number is even smaller compared with 36m in Spain, 44
million in Belgium and 69 million in Switzerland. (TCI, 2002)
The telecommunications infrastructure is inconsistent in its quality and accessibility.
Telephone links get preferential treatment in center cities of Russia such as Moscow,
St. Petersburg. Most of people who live in metropolitan are well served, but large
areas in east of Russia have extremely poor access service; even have on telephone
connection at all. Hence, the inter-regional links are neglected. There is nearly no
telecommunication backbone on a nation wide area to provide the capability for
network expansion. As the result of this point, the growth in fixed telephony services
is much slower than the growth in other telecommunication areas, for example the
cellular network and Internet access services.
After the liberalization of the former republic, the telecommunication services in
Russia have grown significantly. As Nazarova indicated in his report: Trends In The
Russian Telecom Market, in 2001, the Russian market for telecommunications
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services was $6.6 billion, more than 24 percent growth over 2000. By the end of 2001,
there are 22 phone lines per 100 people, 50 percent increase compared with 1996,
while the number of cellular and Internet subscribers doubled.
For Internet access services, there is almost no broadband infrastructure in Russia.
The Internet subscribers are most likely to use dial-up to surf Internet. In January
2002, the Internet penetration was 4.3 percent of the population; it is tiny compared to
the United State, but in recent years, the level of Internet penetration is growing faster.
According to a report based on a study by the Russian National Institute of Social and
Psychological Research (NISPR), as we can see the graphic below about the growth
of Russian population online from 1995 to 2001, the number of Russian Internet users
is not nearly as impressive as the number of US users, but the Internet in Russia is
growing with exponential speed. Therefore, Russia has the highest growth rate of
Internet users in Europe.
Source: NISPR
There are 1 million Russian households online (Kania, 2000) with another 4 million
households possessing both a PC and a telephone line, but there are much more than
one million Internet users. It means that the predominant place of Internet access for
Russian Internet users is work (49%), while 38% have access at home.
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During the next two years in Russia, some experts predict there will be 40 percent
growth in Internet users, but the Internet Dialup access will grow no more than 20
percent. This point means the main growth coming in the broadband segment. The
packet switch network will grow 55 percent annually, and the VPN network is
expected to be triple times of 2001.
In addition, another important sector of telecommunication is cellular service. The
number of mobile phone subscribers in Russia rose by 1.25 million in January 2003 to
reach 19.28 million (Pravda, 2003). Market penetration reached 13.4% of the
population. The same as the situation about fixed telephony line service and Internet
access service, the major cities that the population is more than one million have
higher penetration than the other areas in Russia; the penetration of Moscow is even
more than 50 percent.
By 2010, Russian telecommunication analysts predict the growth in each sector of
telecommunication industry of Russia: For fixed line service, the number of
subscriber will reach to 48 million; the penetration rate is about 33 percent. Also, the
subscribers of cellular service will be more than 22 million; the penetration rate is
about 15 percent. For Internet access, there will be 26 million Internet users, and the
penetration rate is 18 percent.
3.6 The Factors Influencing the Telecommunications Industry
The telecommunication industry can be influenced by many factors, such as political
policies, economic environment, or even the competition come from the foreign
telecommunication companies.
Obviously, before 1985, Russia was a centrally planned economy. After Gorbachev
coming into power, he realized that the decentralized economic system would greatly
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promote the development of Soviet Union’s industry, so he made some decentralized
economic decision, but unfortunately, in the December of 1991, the Soviet Union was
dissolved. After the backup of the Soviet Union and subsequent liberalization of the
former republics, the Russian telecommunications services industry is largely
privatized and declined about 20-30%. Before 1998, the whole telecommunication
industry in Russia grew slowly because of the influence of inflation and the decrease
in output.
In the mid of 1998, a serious economic crisis broke out by the crash of the Russian
stock market. This made the telecommunication industry getting worse. After that, the
Central Bank widened the scope of currency fluctuation, the Ruble become one twice
of its value due to this economic crisis. Many investors who invested in the
telecommunication industry were terribly hurt. For this reason, the speed of revival
for Russian telecommunication industry was slow down.
After the privatization in Russian society, the new regulations began to influence the
telecommunication industry. All the foreign companies are prohibited from full
ownership of the regional fixed line operations. Foreign companies participate in the
market through joint ventures with local companies. This policy help the Russian
regional telecommunication companies get more investments form foreign countries,
these funds are mainly used in cellular network and digital communication services.
As this paper mentioned in last three paragraphs, the Russian telecommunication
industry is mainly influenced by three factors. The first one is the polity change,
Russia become a capitalistic country from a communistic society. This change
occurred 10 years before, but its influences are still remaining. The second factor is
the economic crisis. After the 1991, the economic system of Russia is still weak, and
any unexpected economic affair could influence the telecommunication industry. The
last factor is government policy, and this point is the most important factor.
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3.7 Organize a 1Mbps Internet Connection from Australia into
Russia
As I mentioned before, there is almost no broadband infrastructure in Russia (IDC
Russia, 2002). Therefore, there are not many choices for us to organize a 1Mbps
Internet connection from Australia into Russia. After investigating the Russian
telecommunication industry, we found only Peterstar which is the first one company
offer digital communication services on the market can supply an Internet connection
to end-user with its bandwidth faster than 1 Mbps by using PRI technology through
wired network. Due to the centralized telecommunication infrastructure, the PRI
Internet connection is only available in some major cities, and in rural areas there are
about 54000 small communities with no telecommunication access at all. It means we
may not get the Internet connection service where we want to connect to. Hence,
organizing a 1 Mbps Internet connection by using PRI is not recommended.
Fortunately, there is another Internet connection solution by using satellite
technologies, which can provide high-quality high-speed Internet access to parts of
Russia where the telephone network is poor or non-existent. The satellite Internet
connection is modular and flexible, and customer can choose the speed from 64k up
to 40M. Therefore, when we consider designing a 1 Mbps connection from Australia
into Russia, the satellite Internet is preferable.
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4 Conclusion
In this research, we look into the telecommunications industry in People’s Republic of
China, Russian Republic, and Thailand. With the governments realizing the
importance of telecommunications industry and under the supports from all kinds of
organizations, the trends of telecommunications industry in all these three countries
are
continuous
developing.
Furthermore,
in
these
three
countries,
the
telecommunications industries are going through the process from state statue to
private property. And all of them have the unbalanced development situation between
cities and rural areas.
On the other hand, although these three countries are located in the same region,
because of the different history and policies, there are quite a lot of differences
existing. China’s telecommunications industry began with the aggressive foreign
encroachment, compared Thailand and Russian Republic with the demand of
long-distance communications. Moreover, the speed and the potentiality of the
development are also different. China is regarded as the rapidest one among them and
people are still optimistic about the future of telecommunications industry. However,
in our research we find that although the development will be continuous, the biggest
telecommunications market in China seems to move to the rural areas, which is
different from the market in Russian Republic and Thailand.
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Appendix A
ATM
ADSL
B-ISDN
BTO
BWA
CAT
CDMA
DDN
DSL
GDP
GPRS
GSM
ISP
KBS/KBE
LMDS
MCC
MII
MMDS
MPT
NISPR
NTC
P&T
PTAs
PTEs
TDMA
TOT
TT&T
WAP
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network
Build-Transfer-Operate
Broadband Wireless Access
Communications Authority of Thailand
Code Division Multiple Access
Digital Data Network
Digital Subscriber Line
Gross Domestic Product
General Packet Radio Service
Global System for Mobile Communication
Internet Services Provider
Knowledge-Based Society and Economy
Local Multipoint Distribution System
Moscow Cellular Communications
Ministry of Information Industry
Multi-channel Microwave Distribution System
Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
National Institute of Social and Psychological Research
National Telecommunication Commission
Post and Telecommunications
Provinincial Post & Telecom Administrations
Posts and Telecommunication Enterprises
Time Division Multiple Access
Telephone Organization of Thailand
Thai Telephone & Telecommunication Company
Wireless Application Protocol
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Appendix B
Domain Names Registered Under ".CN"
Domain
Name
Type
Meanings
.COM
Enterprise of Industry, Business, Finance etc.
.NET
Network Information Centre or Network Operation Centre
.ORG
Nonprofit-making Organization
.GOV
Government
.AC
Institution of Science and Research
.EDU
Institution of Education
.CN
China
AADN
Administration Area Domain Name
Date
.com.cn
.net.cn
.org.cn
.gov.cn
.ac.cn
.edu.cn
1997/3
747
220
17
34
186
1997/5
1168
215
48
166
1997/7
1325
248
55
1997/9
1831
323
1997/10
2115
1997/11
aadn
Total
254
237
1695
191
262
334
2384
193
221
304
414
2760
72
287
251
323
503
3590
366
122
325
244
325
569
4066
2440
406
90
361
271
361
587
4516
1997/12
3009
408
102
357
306
357
561
5100
1998/1
3225
430
108
376
269
376
591
5375
1998/2
3450
460
115
403
345
345
633
5751
1998/3
4147
498
153
431
334
365
531
6459
1998/4
4785
541
172
461
341
377
565
7242
1998/5
5619
601
203
509
355
394
602
8283
1998/6
6559
657
229
561
363
414
632
9415
1998/7
7719
712
262
610
386
419
656
10764
1998/8
8869
762
281
671
393
438
678
12092
1998/9
9973
872
308
749
398
455
791
13546
1998/10
11141
986
336
815
411
471
834
14994
1998/11
12553
1076
364
858
418
505
870
16644
1998/12
13913
1223
409
982
432
531
906
18396
Page 43 of 46
.cn
Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
1999/1
14860
1283
437
1074
445
544
965
19608
1999/2
15616
1348
463
1134
446
556
997
20560
1999/3
16752
1459
493
1210
464
568
1064
22010
1999/4
18285
1603
548
1390
475
582
1104
23987
1999/5
20246
1952
600
1513
488
600
1148
26547
1999/6
22220
2221
649
1663
502
615
1175
29045
1999/7
23936
2390
687
1781
507
642
1215
31158
1999/8
25811
2390
691
1857
485
653
1251
33138
1999/9
28719
2592
756
2057
490
653
1339
36606
1999/10
30474
2746
792
2138
487
653
1365
38655
1999/11
34227
3259
864
2312
488
731
1462
43343
1999/12
38776
3753
940
2479
500
731
1516
48695
2000/1
45126
4448
1234
2669
514
792
1719
56502
2000/2
50970
5232
1352
2790
539
812
1919
63614
2000/3
60176
6936
1524
2972
581
867
2466
75522
2000/4
68381
8350
1656
3150
600
918
2864
85919
2000/5
74418
9508
1746
3364
615
928
3009
93588
2000/6
78878
10719
1912
3665
624
981
3124
99903
2000/7
81218
11374
2012
3903
638
992
3066
103203
2000/8
84593
11698
2116
4111
649
1018
3476
107661
2000/9
87217
11921
2218
4249
654
1073
4732
112064
2000/10
89496
12371
2291
4233
662
1086
4868
115007
2000/11
92861
12753
2432
4389
672
1100
4686
118893
2000/12
96221
13291
2596
4615
682
1127
3567
122099
2001/1
100889
14300
2628
4722
681
1134
3574
127928
2001/2
102117
15452
2665
4747
692
1143
3646
130462
2001/3
102812
16569
2725
4784
701
1162
3712
132465
2001/4
101249
16231
2861
4910
699
1186
3683
130819
2001/5
100182
15884
2863
4998
687
1202
3564
129380
2001/6
99922
15055
2864
5181
667
1239
3434
128362
2001/7
99839
14917
2862
5182
663
1260
3430
128153
2001/8
99381
14842
2861
5185
667
1270
3421
127627
2001/9
99501
14293
2887
5547
669
1288
3365
127550
2001/10
98443
13932
2882
5624
668
1288
3362
126199
2001/11
98771
13856
2901
5747
669
1330
3370
126644
Page 44 of 46
Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
2001/12
99123
14045
2943
5864
673
1354
3317
127319
2002/1
99605
14193
2959
5894
675
1360
3327
128013
2002/2
98631
13686
2985
6011
667
1368
3254
126602
2002/3
99844
13394
3010
6127
664
1396
3243
127678
2002/4
100246
12808
3002
6357
681
1431
3234
127759
2002/5
99557
12558
3006
6505
685
1448
3230
126989
2002/6
68835
12248
3031
6686
692
1482
3172
126146
2002/7
99091
12150
3082
6842
690
1500
3175
126530
2002/8
99787
12176
3156
6997
691
1519
3149
127475
2002/9
101629
12479
3224
7276
701
1555
3202
130066
2002/10 105540
14105
4363
7296
1333
1579
5072
139288
2002/11 109334
15336
4712
7452
1349
1604
5640
145427
2002/12 133796
20234
9587
7796
1728
1629
4774
179544
2003/1 136640
20094
9522
8127
1735
1648
4497
182263
2003/2 140925
20685
9851
8346
1740
1661
4605
187813
2003/3 145719
21444
10296
8691
1744
1695
95531
4712
289832
2003/4 149158
21841
10542
9017
1752
1723
78969
4813
277815
2003/5 152321
22221
10763
9368
1754
1751
87452
4858
290488
2003/6 120957
13957
6342
9328
702
1787
94469
3109
250651
2003/7 120679
13811
6429
9580
689
1812
100345
3001
256346
.ac.cn
.edu.cn
.cn
aadn
Total
Date
.com.cn .net.cn .org.cn .gov.cn
Page 45 of 46
Cse5806 Group Assignment: International Telecommunications - Structures & Regulation
List of References
Breiter, M. (1999), “Brief Statistical Analysis of the Telecommunications Market in
Russia” [online]
http://www.bisnis.doc.gov/bisnis/isa/9908tel3.htm, [Accessed: Sep. 3rd 2003]
Central Telegraph, (2003), “The history of the Central Telegraph” [online]
http://www.ctel.msk.ru/cnt/en/cnt1_7.html, [Accessed: Sep. 1st 2003]
CTI, (1998), TelecomInvest, Telecominvest, Russia
Kan, G. (2000), The Internet In Russia, Vanderbilt University, Russia
Mueller M. & Tan Z.X. (1997) China in the Information Age, The Center for Strategic
& International Studies Washington, D.C.
Naumenko, L. (2003), “Russia Loses Ground in IT Race”[online]
http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/7070-19.cfm, [Accessed: Sep. 3rd 2003]
Nazarova, I. (2002), Trends in the Russian telecom market [online]
http://www.bisnis.doc.gov/bisnis/bulletin/0207bull5.htm, [Accessed: Sep. 1st 2003]
Paul S.N.L. (1997) Telecommunications &Development in China, Hampton, Cresskill,
New Jersey
PTN, (2001), The Reorganization of Telecommunication Companies in the Russia.s
Northwest Federal District, PTN, Moscow
Shen X.B. (1999) The Chinese Road to High Technology, Macmillan, Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies
Telecom Infrastructure
http://www.american.edu/carmel/jc0650a/Telecommunications%20Infrastructure.htm
[Accessed: Sep. 3rd 2003]
The Internet Index of Thailand
http://ntl.nectec.or.th/internet/ [Accessed: Sep. 1st 2003]
Tofig, A. & Gular, I. (2001), Telecommunication Infrastructure of Research Institutes
of the Ministry of Agriculture in Azerbaijian, Baku Scientific Training Centre, Baku
Zubarev, Y. (2003), Development of the telecommunication market in Russia, Radio &
Research Institute, Russia
Page 46 of 46