Beijing has taken the first steps toward setting up a digital community by building a data hub supported by a broad-band network. If everything goes according to plan, Beijing citizens will be able to surf the Internet at breath-taking speeds.
The Beijing-based data hub, a digitalized community, will be built by the joint efforts of Beijing Economy and Technology Development Zone and Beijing Telecom in two years. Dozens of multinational companies will benefit from the project, analysts say. Citizens may enjoy more convenient access to Internet and various services including online shopping.
The Development Zone has budgeted 1 billion yuan (US$120million) for the data hub. Basic bandwidth of the data hub is 2.5G and will be enlarged in future.
This Spring Festival, citizens in Development Zone will be the first to watch digital TV in a trial run.
(China Daily 12/21/2000)
