Karamay becomes first networked city in China

BEIJING: Karamay, an oil-rich town in the restive northwest Xinjiang region, has become the first city in China networked with a Triple-Play service which will provide voice, video and data services to all residents.

Triple-Play service depends on a converged optic network jointly offered by Internet, cable TV and telecommunication providers.

In 2011, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and Karamay Radio and Television Transmission Co jointly invested 220 million yuan (USD 36 million) to pilot the Triple-Play service.

Over the past three years, the single-fibre optic connections have been installed into all residential communities in the city, enabling each of the city's roughly 130,000 households to have 100 megabits of Internet connectivity.

According to the city's information management bureau, the combined optic network building has not only reduced telecom infrastructure investment by 75 per cent and maintenance costs by 50 per cent when compared to the cost of facilities built separately by telecom and TV providers.

They also helped residents save 60 per cent on the services.

Karamay has become a model city for the construction of a Triple-Play optic network, said Su Guoping, deputy director of the Xinjiang regional commission of economic and information technology.

Users can choose each of the telecom providers for the combined Internet, telecommunication and TV services at home.

Elsewhere in the country, the new network, which would help break-up traditional telecom and television monopolies, still faces difficulties being implemented, state-run news agency reported.

Uighur-majority Xinjiang, resource-rich and strategically located on the borders of central Asia, has been on the boil because of the government's repressive policies including controls on Islam, analysts say. Beijing denies such claims.

Analysts say most of the proceeds from the region have gone to the Han Chinese, stoking resentment among Uighurs.