The long-awaited telecommunications law is unlikely to be
submitted for voting at the National People's Congress (NPC), which
will open next month, industry sources said.
"There is a slim chance the telecommunications law will be
passed this year," said an official with the Ministry of
Information Industry (MII), who was involved in drafting the
law.
The telecommunications law has been at the draft stage for over
20 years. The MII submitted a final version to the State Council
for evaluation in 2004. And last year the standing committee of the
NPC listed the telecommunications law as one of its top priorities,
buoying hopes it will be passed soon.
According to China's legislation process, a draft law must be
evaluated by the standing committee three times before it can be
submitted to the NPC for voting.
"So far, the draft has yet to be put on the table of the NPC
standing committee," said the MII official, who did not wish to be
named.
As the standing committee evaluation usually takes about six
months, the draft telecommunications law will not be discussed at
this year's NPC, the source said.
Disagreements on the regulatory framework of the increasingly
converged information industry have stalled the legislation
process, the MII official said. "Telecom and broadcasting
authorities have yet to reach a consensus on how to regulate the
industries."
The fast-growing telecommunications, Internet and broadcast
networks and the emergence of new technologies and services such as
broadcasting via Internet and mobile phone networks have largely
blurred boundaries within the industry.
A regulation issued by the State Council in 1999 prohibits
telecom operators and broadcasters from entering each other's turf.
That means in China a telecom operator is not allowed to offer
broadcasting services, while a broadcaster cannot provide telephone
and Internet access services.
In recent years deregulation has enabled some cable TV service
operators to offer Internet access via cable. Some telecom
operators have been awarded licenses to offer broadcasting services
via the Internet.
"But the contraction of interests of the telecom and broadcast
industries is still hampering full deregulation," the MII official
said.
Competition peaked in 2005 when local broadcasting regulators in
Quanzhou, a city in East China's Fujian Province, ordered China
Telecom and Shanghai Media Group (SMG) to cease a trial of IPTV
(Internet Protocol TV) services, although SMG had already secured
an IPTV license.
Industry observers said broadcast regulators halted the IPTV
trial because they wanted to promote digital TV services.
"Operators of broadcast and telecom networks as well as
regulators need to collaborate at a time when different networks
are becoming increasingly converged," said Yang Peifang, a research
fellow with the China Academy of Telecom Research affiliated with
the MII.
(China Daily February 28, 2007)