Shanghai Strives to Become Asia's Major Cyber HubShanghai's bid to become a major cyber hub in Asia got a strong boost as a key project to integrate all the circuits and pipelines for telecom services into an underground broadband pipeline completed its first-phase construction Wednesday.The achievement, part of a leading project of the city this year to build up the main frame for the cyber port dream, will cut short Shanghai's infrastructure gap with Internet-savvy overseas cities, officials and experts said. The renovation included phasing out all the zigzagged circuit poles and lines bare in the open air, which are blamed for pollution and accidents, integrating all the circuits to run in the same underground pipeline and wiring fibre optical lines into business and residential houses. In five years when the giant project is completed, all telecom operators in Shanghai can use the upgraded facilities as the key infrastructure base for their value-added businesses. Right now, about 344 kilometres of telecom circuits have been placed underground, and the first-phase project, with an investment of 400 million yuan (US$49.2 million), has begun to provide services to eight clients, who cover all the telecom operators in China. By next year, there will be 1,500 kilometres of underground lines, which should cover the main commercial areas in the urban rim, with an investment 50 per cent higher than this year. All funds are borrowed from Chinese commercial banks. "Telecom circuits and pipelines are the foundation for a city's survival in the IT age. The project will offer a strong backbone for Shanghai's development as an Internet-smart metropolis," said Yan Junqi, deputy director of the Information Technology Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, which is in charge of the cyber port project. The biggest beneficiaries are the telecom service operators, especially the new start-ups. Source: China Daily |
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