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Scholars urged the country to better exploit its huge cable network
to build a cheaper yet more efficient online "information home''
for its people.
While the Internet is playing an ever more important role in people's
lives, Internet surfers are suffering from online traffic jams that
have the gloomy prospect of becoming graver unless the band can
be effectively broadened.
But broadening the band means tremendous investments as well as
time for patience.
Therefore, why not better exploit an existent information highway
-- the cable network -- which is already sufficient, He Dongcai,
vice-president of the China Radio and Television Society, suggested
yesterday at the 2001 China Data Forum.
Jointly held by the society and the esteemed Tsinghua University,
the forum focused on the application of data technology, the very
kernel of today's digital technology, in cable communications.
Over 1,500 officials in radio and television, science and education,
as well as renowned domestic and foreign information technology
providers attended the one-day discussion.
According to He, China already has the world's largest cable user
population, and the country vowed in its 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05)
to further expand the number of users.
By the year 2005, 40 percent of the country's households, roughly
150 million, should be connected to the cable network.
The five-year plan also stipulates that the cable network must be
integrated with the other two major networks, the telecom and the
computer networks, to construct a cheaper yet more efficient information
highway affordable to more Chinese people.
Over 250 local cable television stations are developing systems
to provide their users with more information, programs, entertainment
and education besides the normal two to four sets of daily cable
TV programs.
"Most of us have realized that our cable network still has
a great deal of spare capacity that needs to be better exploited,
and the delay in the work is a grave waste,'' said He.
Professor Hu Dongchen, vice-president of Tsinghua University, said
cable television stations will become the leading provider of distance
education in the future.
Many well-known primary schools, high schools and universities in
China already have their own distance-learning facilities, and Tsinghua
University will soon grant the country's first Masters to students
using this non-traditional method of study.
In a recent experiment conducted by the university in Qingdao, Shandong
Province, cable users with computers only needed to pay about 40
yuan (US$4.8) for the month to receive distance education from the
university and read Internet magazines compiled by the local cable
television station.
The average cost in using the Internet every month is more than
100 yuan (US$12.1).
(China Daily 03/21/01)
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