China's Backbones: Not the Weakest Link

By JONAH GREENBERG

(Virtual China News -- Mar. 24) Four national backbone networks in China will upgrade the connections linking them to one another within the next few days, representing a small but much needed step in improving the conditions of China's data networking infrastructure.

Using broadband technology, four of the country's five commercial and civilian backbone networks will enhance their interconnectivity by a factor of as much as twenty, according to statements made Tuesday by "Internet authorities" quoted in Homeway Financial News.

The networks included are China Telecom's CHINANET, the country's largest backbone network; the Science and Technology Network (CSTNET), the China Education and Research Network (CERNET), and the Golden Bridge Network (CHINA GBNET), which was built by China Jitong, one of China's four commercially-licensed network operators. The bandwidth of their connections will be upgraded from between 2 and 8 Mbps (megabits per second) to 155 Mbps, the minimum bandwidth considered broadband.

Pool Resources

Backbone networks in the U.S., including Excite@Home (map), the AboveNet network (map), and Agis (map) range from 45 Mbps to 5 Gbps (gigabits per second). Any network above 155 Mbps is called "broadband" network.

All of China's Internet traffic is carried on the four networks, along with Uninet, the fifth backbone network, owned by China Unicom. The upgrade is expected by industry experts to alleviate bottlenecks and to allow for improved Internet access speeds -- a crucial step in the development of an e-commerce industry.

The upgrade will allow the existing networks to come closer to reaching their full potential for data carriage by increasing the bandwidth of the small networks that link the larger national backbone networks, explains Edward C. Lanfranco, an analyst who has tracked the telecommunications industry in China since 1995.

"It's a good idea for [the four networks] to pool resources," Lanfranco said, adding that by upgrading the bandwidth of their connections state-sponsored networks can combine their capacity for data transmission, helping to ease the flow of Internet traffic in China at peak hours throughout the day.

Frustrating and Costly

"The sum of their network capabilities will help to accommodate better routing during periods of peak usage," Lanfranco said, pointing out the economical aspect of the project: "Making what you have already bought work at peak efficiency is simply common sense," he said.

Slow Internet access speed was doubtless a factor in bringing about the upgrade, according to Xing Fan, a researcher at the International Communications program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Dissatisfaction among China's 8.9 million Internet users has helped to call the attention of China's leaders to lagging infrastructure development, Fan said.

"Complaints have been piling up and going all the way to the State Council," he said, adding that Premier Zhu Rongji recently made statements calling for faster Internet connectivity in China.

Currently, Web surfers in China face slow Internet access speeds, which can be frustrating and costly.

"They have to wait a long time for a few pages of text to appear on the screen, and that increases their cost," Fan said.

Nanjing to Wuhan

While China Telecom and China Jitong -- both commercial operators -- would be quick to invest in data networks in China, where the Internet is growing at an astounding rate, CSTNET and CERNET are not commercial operators and would be forced to rely on government funding.

"If [those two] receive a lot of complaints, they would have to do something," Fan said, proposing that they might apply to ministries and agencies for financial assistance.

Although key ministries are often reluctant to allow foreign investment in China's telecommunications infrastructure, all levels of the government in China are eager to build up China's data networking capacity. The Internet has long been identified as an effective means for increasing China's participation in the global trade economy.

Officials at China's four licensed commercial operators (China Telecom, China Unicom, China Netcom, and China Jitong) announced earlier this month they would invest a combined US$1 billion in improving the country's Internet backbone networks, according to Reuters. Already this month, China Telecom contracted the Canada-based telecommunications infrastructure provider Nortel Networks to build a 320 Gbps backbone network connecting the cities of Nanjing and Wuhan.

E-Commerce Applications

With advanced wireless Internet technologies on the rise in Asia, and forecasts predicting wireless devices' supremacy over PC's for Internet access in China, data network operators in China will have to invest many more millions into backbone networks over the next few years.

Speeding up the links between existing backbone networks is an inexpensive way for China's Internet infrastructure to upgrade itself compared to building up entirely new networks, said Xing Fan.

"We have to look at the economic factor," he said, pointing out that building a new national backbone network would cost "many more times" what it would to enhance bandwidth at key connection points.

Although the upgrade will substantially improve speeds of domestic data transmission, Lanfranco points out that China's Internet infrastructure is lagging far behind the U.S. and Europe, where platforms for Internet-based commerce are already firmly in place.

"In order for China to increase its opportunities in the new economy, it can ill afford not to keep up with the bandwidth and e-commerce applications becoming available among its most advanced trading partners of the West," he said.

To reach Jonah Greenberg: jgreenberg@virtualchina.net