Shanghai will have established a citywide wireless broadband network by 2010: Shanghai’s Municipal Informatization Commission and China Telecom Shanghai revealed that wireless demonstration areas will be ready for use in 2008. A number of regions are currently competing to become exhibition areas and obtain future construction projects.
Shanghai is a logical starting point to begin China’s wireless ascension. The city is the backbone of the Chinese Net with international output capacity reaching 50 G, the country’s largest point of outflow for Chinese information. This year will also mark the dredging of the new trans-Pacific fiber optic cable (TPE) with a capacity of 640 G. By the end of the year, 85% of the city’s internet users will enjoy a broadband access of up to 2 M and 80 percent of broadband subscribers will enjoy an opened capacity of 4 M. The number of broadband subscribers will reach 3 million in 2008.
At present, people can access a wireless network in Jiading District in the north of Shanghai. Wireless will probably be available in most areas in the city’s central Huangpu District, where the municipal government buildings are located, by the end of the year, said Hua Ruiqiang, Shanghai Telecom’s senior manager.
Once completed, it will be the first citywide wireless broadband network on the Chinese mainland: Beijing wireless network will be available only around the Olympic stadiums, hotels and travel sites.
Currently wireless access is available at the city’s two commercial airports, some hotels and restaurants and Starbucks outlets in Shanghai.
“We have made several proposals for the business model and the technology of the network and it will use mainstream and advanced technology,” Hua said.
Wi-Fi and WiMax — the wider coverage and higher speed version of Wi-Fi — will be adopted for Shanghai, according to IT firms like Cisco and Nortel, which say they have been selected to provide equipment for the network.
The network will be funded by the government, Shanghai Telecom and Shanghai Mobile, though no decision has been made yet on whether to charge users, according to the IT commission.
