Beijing Studies Shanghai Cable Example

BEIJING --- With little being heard recently about Beijing's digital cable network (see CMM passim), the Beijing press has recently found good cause to point out the advances in Shanghai that make Beijing's inter department squabbling look more ridiculous than it already does. 

In an article carried in late March, the Beijing Economic Daily reported on the developments in Shanghai which will, by the end of this year, see some residents enjoying "TV programs as they please" (Video On Demand) on their TV sets at home. 

This is the result of the construction of "Shanghai Information Broadband Network Project" which, the paper points out, will integrate cable, telecoms and computer networks into one. 

Noting that the "information super highways" of the three separate networks are very narrow, the paper says that to avoid duplicating investment to re-build these networks, the municipal information office will use advanced techniques to build a city-wide broadband network. 

This it says will incorporate an information transmission platform, a broadband receiving network and an IP broadband experimental demonstration network, shared by cable, telecom and computer networks. It remains to be seen whether this type of co-operation will inspire similar municipal efforts in Beijing.