New apartment dwellers will need only one cable connection to make telephone calls, surf the internet and watch television at a lower cost as the State Council has approved a pilot programme to merge those services, according to official media. The programme will be launched in several cities in the next few years, said Wang Xiaojie , the head of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television's technology bureau in Shanghai. He said more information would be released soon. Although industry analysts estimate the merger will cost at least 600 billion yuan (HK$686.34 billion), 'it's expected to attract at least 1 trillion yuan of investment in the next three years,' said Wu Jiangxing , the deputy head of the State Council's expert group on online integration, during a recent discussion panel. The announcement comes as the digital media landscape on the mainland continues to evolve rapidly. With consumers increasingly using digital cable television, internet television, high-speed internet and third-generation telephone services, according to research firm Nielsen Company in an April report, the government will focus on integrating television/radio broadcasting, internet and telecommunication networks in the next five years. A recent survey by the company found 46 per cent of respondents watched online video through their mobile telephones. A future integrated network will provide users with voice, data and television services, combining data transfer, cable-television and telecommunications services on a shared platform. It means current networks will be combined and upgraded so that viewers can browse high-speed internet and watch high-speed, high-resolution internet protocol television programmes through their cable-television services. Digital, high-resolution and interactive television programmes and other services can be available online, including shopping, payment services and making internet protocol telephone calls. Mobile phones, MP4 players and receivers using the global positioning system can also be used to view China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting TV programmes. About 233 million people, more than half of the country's internet users, were browsing the internet on their mobile phones at the end of last year, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre. The merger plan was set out in two phases: 2010-12 for the launch of trial sites for merged services and firming up the framework to handle regulation, and 2013-15 for the launch of services for business. The final version of the pilot plan had been passed to relevant departments, and cities' applications to be in the pilot programme were being taken, industry sources told Xinhua. It was expected that Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Harbin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Changsha, and Xinzhou will be granted as pilot cities, Xinhua quoted Zhao Zisen, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as saying at an internal meeting. Wang said the list of pilot cities would be released today. 'New policies restricting integrated services need to be made, and the issuance of regulations on market competition, privacy rights, national security, pornography and vulgar culture should all be addressed before integration,' said Zhang Xiaoming , a vice-director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Research Centre for Humanities. 'Merging them will perhaps give birth to an independent watchdog. Ofcom (the Office of Communications) in Britain is an example. Control over the internet might be tightened after new regulations and restrictions are set out for the integration of telecoms, cable TV and the internet.' But because the task of merging services will be so large and complex, Feng Linhui , a general manager at Sina Henan, said on May 29 at the Website Annual Meeting in Beijing: 'The internet is comparatively more open than the other two networks. I personally think that before the current policies and management mechanism are overhauled, the merging of services will be only partial.' Single platform The changing digital media landscape is leading to integration The scheme to merge telephone, internet and television services is expected to cost, in yuan: 600b yuan
