China Telecom, the mainland's largest fixed-line operator, is planning an upgrade of its residential broadband access network to support transmission speeds of more than 20 megabits per second, sources said.
The upgrade will be completed by 2010 and is aimed at boosting fixed-line income from multimedia content. In order to meet its target, the company will increase existing bandwidths by between five and 10 times and aims to provide at least 80 per cent of households with a 20 megabit per second service in two years.
The bigger bandwidth planned by China Telecom for residential households will be able to support at least two internet protocol television service accounts, the delivery of high-definition television services, online video games and a voice over internet protocol service, according to Gao Chengjin, senior engineer at equipment vendor ZTE.
China Telecom originally offered its broadband internet service through its legacy network, based on mostly copper lines. These carry the broadband service using asymmetrical digital subscriber line technology.
In Hong Kong, fixed-line operator PCCW has upgraded its copper line network with an optical fibre network.
While the average bandwidth provided to each household is 6 to 8 megabits per second, several new buildings can be served with transmissions speeds of at least 18 megabits per second.
New fixed-line operators like Hong Kong Broadband Network and Hutchison Telecom already provide services to residential broadband users that offer transmission speeds of 10 megabits per second or higher.