Shanghai Daily reports:

SHANGHAI leads all Chinese cities for computer connections - half of the city’s families subscribe to broadband, China Telecom said yesterday.

Shanghai’s broadband subscriber base has passed three million already, 15 times up from 2002, according to Shanghai Telecom, the city’s largest fixed-line phone operator.

Not too surprising there. The article has a number of interesting statistics, whatever they’re worth:

- 85% of subscribers access at more than 2Mbps

- 80% of subscribers access at more than 4Mbps

- China has 122 million broadband users

- Shanghai has 220,000 IPTV users

- Shanghai Telecom (the local incarnation of China Telecom) charges between 130 and 150RMB monthly for broadband

An interesting trend for China Telecom is the source of their revenue. As the fixed-line telephony providers have been disemboweled by China Mobile, non-phone services have become ever-more important. In 2002 5.5% of China Telecom’s income came from non-phone services; last year that number reached 30%.

China Telecom knows a good thing when it sees it. They plan to upgrade the network to 16Mbps to support high-def video and, inevitably, better connectivity for online gaming. Online gaming is a key driver for the adoption of broadband in China.

The article quotes a user, Alan Wang:

Wang canceled his fixed line phone three months ago but plans to upgrade his broadband speed to 4 MBPS.

“The Internet speed often determines survival and death in World of WarCraft,” said Wang, who is a regular player of the online game.

Don’t worry Alan, more bandwidth is on the way.

ShareThis