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Telecom Service Providers to Grow After China's Entry into WTO: Interview
After China enters into the World Trade Organization (WTO), telecom service providers will grow in the domestic market, said Hau Tung Ying, chairman and chief executive officer of China Motion Telecom International Limited, in an interview with Xinhua.
Hau, 47-year-old, was elected chairman of Internet and Telecom Association of Hong Kong last year. He said as the Chinese government has speeded up the pace of opening up the domestic telecom market, many telecom enterprises and product providers in Hong Kong and foreign countries are preparing to enter into the enormous market.
China's telecom market continued to enjoy a record rapid growth with telecom income reaching 307.4 billion yuan ( 37.1 billion US dollars) in 2000, a 26.4 percent increase over 1999, Hau said.
In 2000, Fixed line users in China reached 145.122 million and mobile phone subscribers increased to 85.36 million.
When China enters into the WTO, the cake will surely become bigger, the telecom services in particular, as the demand for varied services centered on customers becomes the major trend of the market, Hau said, adding that many value-added service providers and content providers, who provide service products to cater for customers' varied needs and lifestyles, will also try to enter the market.
Citing Hong Kong a bridge linking up domestic and foreign telecom enterprises, Hau believed that China Motion can play an intermediary role with its experience in both the domestic and international telecom market.
Hau disagreed that foreign telecom operators and service providers are more competitive in the domestic market.
Those foreign companies have advantages in capital, management and technologies, while local companies have a better understanding about local culture and lifestyles, so foreign companies and local ones can set up cooperation on a "win-win" base, Hau said.
In order to be competitive in the future market, China Motion has transformed itself from a paging operator to a diversified telecom service provider through massive business reconstruction.
Now China Motion has repositioned itself to be one of the first nationwide virtual network operators and value-added service provider with a stringent business focus on China, Hau said.
There are many virtual network operators in Europe and the United States and the concept of Mobile Virtual Network Operator ( MVNO) is originated in the Europe, Hau said.
He explained that a MVNO provides mobile phone services with its own brand by renting networks of the mobile phone network operators.
It will bring a brand-new service mode to China's telecom market, Hau said.
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