China Telecom Promotes Urban In formatization

With the support from the Metro Optical Network （MONET） plan， 4G communication and other infrastructure constructions， China Telecom Shanghai has built an increasingly maturing industry driven by new-typed information consumption services like mobile wallet， mobile video and mobile navigation.

Over the last few years， with the spirit of exploration and innovation， Shanghais telecom carriers have blazed a new path to economic transition and livelihood improvement by promoting urban informatization construction and residents information consumption which has become a new economic growth engine for Shanghai.

MONET for Easy Shopping

Liu Shen from Minhang District decorated his new apartment months ago. Usually one would be scurrying around with all the planning， material purchasing， progress monitoring and quality controlling during that process， but not Mr. Liu. Better yet， he seemed to be rather relaxed.

“All my colleagues feel sorry for me because I have to decorate in scorching summer heat. But actually nowadays we can buy all the materials we need online and save a lot of trouble，” said Mr. Liu. When he was talking， his cell phone beeped. It was a message including a material shopping list sent by his power and water contractor Mr. Wu through a communication app named WeChat.

Mr. Liu would not have to hurry up and get to the shopping mall before its closed. Instead he just powered on the computer and started to search for the materials he needed online. With MONET， he could find what he needs at almost every possible construction material websites. It took him only half an hour to finish the purchase by simply making the order and leave his mailing address and cell phone number. “Before online shopping that would take at least half a day，” said Mr. Liu.

Easy online shopping that requires only “finger moving” needs the support of high-speed broadband network. China Telecom Shanghai embarked on the project of MONET as the most essential part of communication infrastructure construction in 2009. Shanghai is also the city where the MONET plan was first carried out in the whole country.

Through 5 rounds of “Smarter City” broadband acceleration， users average band width of China Telecom Shanghai has doubled every year since 2011 and reached to the level of developed countries within two years.

Up until June 2013， the “Fiber to the Home” project of Shanghai had covered more than 7.3 million households and almost all the urban areas which took up more than 60% of all broadband users； more than 3.2 million households were actually making use of it； the average internet access speed of Shanghai broadband users had exceeded 10M， fiber users 16M.endprint

Mobile Wallet

In July 2013， 132 employees of Shanghai Earthquake Administration started to use the NFC card service provided by China Mobile Shanghai which allowed the employees to replace old door pass with their own cell phones. Moreover， this service can also be used as attendance card， dining pass and even credit card in shopping malls equipped with specially designed POS machines.

A decade ago， the popularization of credit card allowed people to enjoy the convenience of pre-expenditure. Five years ago， telephone and online payment became many peoples first choice when shopping. Today， paying dinners and tickets by simply “swiping” the ce phone has become the latest trend.

ll

China Mobile Shanghai launched the NFC Mobile Wallet service in May 2013. With bank account information binding to SIM card， the cell phone turns into a credit card. By now China Mobile Shanghai has partnered with more than 10 banks in Mobile Wallet business， including Shanghai Pudong Development Bank， China Merchants Bank， Bank of China， China Citic Bank and China Everbright Bank. 160，000 POS machines labeled with Visas“QuickPass” logo now can be found in more than 20000 stores of Shanghai.

China Mobile believes that mobile can change life and spur consumption. According to related personnel， as a landmark of informatization-driven consumption， Mobile Wallet can be significantly stimulating for the upgrade of urban informatization and lowerreaches industry. The service applies to various cell phone models and operating systems and different scenarios. A whole payment industry chain of cell phone， SIM card and POS terminal is rising from it.

Besides， the service has also created a new marketing channel for financial institutions and other partners. Along with the increasing number of users， come huge business opportunities.

4G Network： the New Spark

Recently， China Telecom got the approval to test 4G network in more than 40 cities of China， which means the project of experimental 4G network construction is now on the table of China Telecom. Reportedly， China Telecom will invest approximately 55 billion yuan in 4G during 2013 and 2014， and 10 billion of it will be put into effect very recently.

According to insiders， during testing stage， 4G network construction in above-mentioned cities will give priority to major urban districts， scenic spots and subways. Where 4G signal is fall short of needed， the network will automatically switch back to 3G， and so forth， which will keep the scale and cost of primary construction in control. Last week， China Mobile announced the official name and slogan of 4G service -“E-surfing 4G， Faster and Better”.

It is reported that Shanghai has build more than 700 outdoor and 300 indoor 4G macro base stations since 2011 when the TD-LTE testing experiment was launched. Areas inside the inner belt such as the Bunds， Zhongshan Park CBD， the City God Temple， People Square， Xujiahui CBD and Huaihai Road CBD have achieved full coverage.

What will happen to Shanghais information consumption when the 4G network is available？ Data shows that renewal circle of cell phones averages 23 months in China. There are more than 30 million cell phone users in Shanghai which means theoretically every year there will be about 150 million users in need of a new cell phone. With 4G network and the acceleration of broadband and sequentially the valueadded application services in games， videos and social media， the number will be even more inspiring.endprint