China Cable and Communication, Inc., a China-based cable TV network operator, today announced the first four months sales results of the company's set-top box for the Chinese cable market.

A set-top box enables consumers to receive premium programming, including broadband Internet access and on-demand services, through the cable network. Unlike set-top boxes currently available in China or other markets worldwide, China Cable's set-top box is based on SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card technology, which features a pre-pay system. With this technology, consumers will be able to purchase one of China Cable's set-top boxes, along with a SIM card, from their local network. If at any point the consumer moves, they will only need to purchase a new SIM card from the new cable service provider, and still be able to use the same set-top box. Beginning with its first set-top box sales in September 2003, China Cable tested a highly competitive trial price of US$70.00, which resulted in the sales of more than 10,000 boxes. Models on the market from other companies can cost as much as US$200 or more–without even providing consumers with the compelling SIM card technology.

Gareth Tang, President of China Cable and Communication, said, "This is an important strategic development for us as we work to build out a robust content delivery platform in China. Our goal is to offer a platform with the capability to be ubiquitous in China. Now that we have received approval by the State Administration for Radio Film and Television (SARFT) of our set-top box technology, we believe our engineers have developed a platform to do just that. Importantly, our SIM technology uses a pre-pay system, which eliminates potential collection issues."