Xi Guohua, vice minister of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, has said that the ministry plans to launch sharing measures to limit the redundant network constructions of Chinese telecommunications operators and to avoid the waste of resources caused by the redundant systems.
According to the annual audit report for 2007 released by the National Audit Office of China on August 27, 2008, the redundant investments of China's five major telecommunications operators, including China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, China Netcom and China Tietong, are quite serious, which lead to a waste of resources and the low profits of some projects. From 2002 to 2006, the five companies totally invested over CNY1.123 trillion in their infrastructure constructions. Their redundant investments cause a low utilization rate of the network resource with only about one-third utilization of the communications cables while their overall costs in depreciation and maintenance are increased.
At the same time, redundant constructions are the concerns of the senior managers of these companies. Chang Xiaobing, president of China Unicom, says the company is planning to hand in a suggestion to call for the resource sharing between telecommunications operators.
Wang Xiaochu, president of China Telecom, also says that China Telecom and China Netcom have transmission network and the engine room while China Mobile and China Unicom have more stations. If these companies can open their network and stations to each other, it will be a win-win situation. It will not only raise the utilization of resources, but also can cut costs of the operators.