Internet Wars and Government policy

[Randy W]

. . . from the SCMP

 

Small change in China's mobile data services shows big power struggle in reform

Incident with Big Three network operators reflects the difficulties of economic reform

 

 

Premier Li Keqiang has apparently lost his patience in recent weeks about many small but important things, . . .

 

Li had to personally host meetings to place a strong and decisive order for the Big Three - China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom - to change their service plans.

 

. . .

 

The incident with the Big Three reflects how difficult it is for the Chinese government to reform its economy, especially when dealing with state-owned enterprises.

 

Earlier this year, both Li and Li's boss -- President Xi Jinping -- complained on different occasions about the challenges in getting central government policies executed quickly at ground level.

 

It is no secret that the central government has seen increasing difficulties in coordinating with different ministries and local governments.

 

The popular joke spreading widely in Chinese society is that sometimes "policy orders can only be known within Zhongnanhai", referring to the central government's head office near Tiananmen Square in Beijing where Xi and Li work every day.

 

 

[Randy W]

. . . and the Global Times

 

China pledges faster and cheaper Internet

 

The MIIT demanded a more open market and stricter monitoring of the telecom market in an effort to offer consumers more services and cheaper prices, according to Shang. As of the end of March, China had 1.3 billion mobile subscribers, with half of those on 3G or 4G contracts. A total of 290 million families have access to optical broadband network and over 200 million users have fixed broadband networks, data from MIIT showed.

In the past three years, charges for mobile data prices and fixed broadband network have decreased by about 60 percent and 30 percent respectively, Shang said.

 

 

Perhaps they can get us consistent service here in Yulin - my speed is generally good, but often drops to zero, making it difficult to watch ANY streaming video without downloading first, and often dropping pages. It's generally a guessing game as to which VPN server is going to work on any given day.

[Randy W]

. . . and the People's Daily (apparently, this is big news here - or someone wants it to be)

 

 

Telecom carriers plan to reduce charges called 'modest'

 

 

Three biggest telecom carriers plan to reduce Internet usage charge has come under criticism with users calling it "modest" and "lacking sincerity", according to Xinhua news agency.

 

. . .

 

The “night traffic” plans have drawn the most criticism among users, according to Xinhua, which quoted Internet users as saying they won’t need the plan as they are already at home with access to Wi-Fi.

"Do the carriers really show their sincerity in the cut?" asked Xinhua, adding that some offers are not clear enough and are ill-designed.

 

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Friday pledged to elevate the country's broadband speed and coverage, while lowering Internet fees.

 

 

[Greg.D.]

I am on facetime to Beijing every day. She upgraded to "fiber" a few weeks ago and quality connection in the evening (her time) is still a challenge as we think people are downloading videos and, at some point, the pipe is shared.

 

Randy, I guess one could lament the obstacles in accessing content but having it crawl to a dead stop would have to be worse.

[Randy W]

That makes it sound worse than it is, but yes, it is bad - this is a tracert I did to CFL just now. VERY slow and a couple of time-outs:

 

Tracing route to candleforlove.com [198.57.149.88]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 278 ms 278 ms 279 ms 10.203.0.1
2 643 ms 580 ms 883 ms 96.44.189.73.static.quadranet.com [96.44.189.73]
3 724 ms 330 ms 509 ms bboi-quadranet.bboi.net [64.127.129.113]
4 654 ms 623 ms 924 ms nsh-ten1-4-dal-ten2-1.bboi.net [64.127.130.49]
5 558 ms 855 ms 574 ms atl-ten3-2-nsh-ten4-1.bboi.net [64.127.130.57]
6 584 ms 815 ms 333 ms ash-ten3-1-atl-ten3-1.bboi.net [66.216.1.158]
7 603 ms * 315 ms ny111-te1-3-ash-te7-3.bboi.net [66.216.1.49]
8 313 ms 319 ms 319 ms 206.223.131.30
9 357 ms 349 ms 357 ms ve59.ar05.prov.acedc.net [199.58.196.93]
10 351 ms 345 ms 348 ms prv-212-1-0-3.unifiedlayer.com [69.27.175.155]
11 604 ms 344 ms 375 ms 69-195-64-129.unifiedlayer.com [69.195.64.129]
12 644 ms 639 ms * 162-144-240-165.unifiedlayer.com [162.144.240.165]
13 348 ms 344 ms 344 ms 162-144-240-81.unifiedlayer.com [162.144.240.81]
14 347 ms 341 ms 350 ms 198-57-149-88.unifiedlayer.com [198.57.149.88]

Trace complete.

 

 

 

From using my cell phone browser on the train, I can see that the infrstructure seems to get much better as you get closer to Guangzhou.