Web Access Monopoly to Be Addressed

The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) will encourage more companies to enter the Internet access services market to break up the monopoly in order to benefit consumers with more competitors in the industry.

Zhang Chunjiang, vice-minister of MII, revealed this Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the China Internet Conference and Exhibition 2000 (ChinaInet) which runs through Friday at the Beijing International Convention Center.

As organizer of the event, MII tries to improve mutual understanding and technical exchange between domestic and international companies, said Zhang.

He hopes international operators can make suggestions that could help solve the bottleneck problems that MII faces including high Internet access prices, low access speed, on-line security as well as safeguards against hackers and viruses.

Famous international Internet organizations like Internet Society (ISOC), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and government delegates from Canada, Germany and the United States will also make keynote speeches during the four-day event.

Donald M. Heath, president and CEO of ISOC, said he was deeply impressed by the changes that have taken place in China in the last two years.

Along with an upbeat Chinese market, he said dotcom companies should be realistic and objective to avoid a bubble economy.

"The real driving force for the Internet is e-commerce," he said.

Facing the development of e-commerce, China will also have to deal with eight primary issues: intellectual property, privacy, taxation, e-payment, security, infrastructure, authentication and harmful content, said Heath.

The combining of mobile telecommunications and Internet was highlighted in the show by major international mobile phone makers: Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Siemens.

Network equipment providers Cisco, Lucent, Nortel and 3Com also introduced their Internet techniques and solutions to visitors.

All the major Chinese telecom companies took part in the event. New players like China Jitong Telecom, China Netcom could soon become rivals of the giant China Mobile and China Unicom.

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