From zhengc@Sdsc.Edu Fri Aug 9 13:39:48 1996 Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 13:39:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Cindy Zheng bcc: Converse@sesame.demon.co.uk, gchoy@cisco.com To: undisclosed recipients: ; Subject: Internet Development in Asia Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: RO X-Status: I selected few paragraphs from a report given on INET'96. The whole report can be found at http://info.isoc.org/isoc/events/inet/96/proceedings/h1/h1_1.htm Cindy ~~~~~~~~~ Internet Development in Asia Peng Hwa Ang School of Communication Studies Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Chee Meng Loh National Computer Board, Singapore China China is a newcomer to the Internet community. The first Internet link was established only in 1993 at the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing (Carrol, 1995). Public access was launched in January 1995 with the help of the U.S. long-distance telephone company Sprint (Economist 1995a). The program, unofficially titled the China Internet Project, or ChinaNet, is run by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It aims to provide, eventually, Internet access to 360,000 state enterprises and 8.6 million private enterprises in 600 Chinese cities (Carrol, 1995). In early 1996, however, despite a population base of more than 1 billion, there were fewer than 100,000 users. Public subscribers in the two largest cities, Beijing and Shanghai, number just between 3,000 and 4,000 people in early 1996 (Yu and Huang, 1996b). Many users feel it is difficult to acquire information from the Internet, and they also want useful information in Chinese--reading English is not comfortable for many users. A survey shows that about 73 percent of online users use only e-mail services on the network, and most of them think information from the Internet is useful only for research (Yu and Huang, 1996a). China, however, is a pioneer in Internet regulation. China's strategy for the Internet appears to be aimed at controlling access and not allowing foreign firms to offer information. In February 1996, new regulations were passed banning transmission of state secrets, information harmful to state security, and pornography over international computer links. But the new laws also required Internet users, including institutions, to register with the police and directed that all public Internet access go through computers managed by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Newsbytes, 1996). The laws make China the most regulated environment for the Internet in the world. Already, China had allowed only sci.* and comp.* Usenet groups. Chinese officials have also told the first author that they plan to model the country's regulations after Singapore (Liu, 1995). It should be noted that the laws are targeted at international computer links. There appears to be an effort to develop a domestic information service. One of the main impediments to Internet growth is the high cost. So, domestic links, which offer cheaper rates, are growing. One online service reported that half its users do not use the full Internet service, which costs 40 yuan (US$2.90) an hour to use and is seen as confusing and foreign. They opt for just the domestic service at 3 yuan (US$0.22) an hour (Yu and Huang 1996a). Second, despite the regulations, there is an effort to wire China for the Internet. In March, one month after new regulations to control the Internet were announced, it was reported that U.S. Sprint signed a multimillion dollar deal with Jiangsu Provincial Data Communications Bureau to install network servers in 11 cities in the province. Jiangsu is the province that encompasses Shanghai. Also, the same article reported that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has plans to set up the Internet literally in the four corners of China--west to Xi'an, south to Chengdu, northeast to Shenyang, and in the heart Wuhan, Shanghai and Guangzhou to the east. All are cities with established universities (Yu and Huang, 1996b). Hong Kong As the city with the freest business environment, Hong Kong has the highest number of IAPs in Asia after Japan--43 in early 1996. With such keen competition, prices have fallen to as low as HK$168 (US$21.70) per month for unlimited usage. More typically, commercial providers charge more than HK$180 (US$23) per month, with further charges levied for each minute the subscriber remains online (Armstrong, 1996). In March 1995, regulators had closed down 30 Internet access providers on the grounds that they did not possess the proper regulatory documentation. But no such documentation existed and had not been required. Later, the Hong Kong government allowed them to reopen and granted them legal status (Armstrong, 1996). Taiwan E-mail through BITnet was made available by the Ministry of Education in 1987. As of September 1995, there are an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 users. Academic institutions are host to at least 60 to 70 percent of users. But if the trend in the West is any indication, this percentage is likely to fall as other IAPs come onstream (Market Intelligence Center). Taiwan, however, only allows wholly Taiwanese companies to provide Internet service. Overall, signs are that steps are being taken to make it easier to access the Internet. Where rates and service are a problem, they are being addressed. Taiwan has held hearings on the handling of Internet access by the Directorate General of Telecommunications, which has the mandate to control access. Users had been unhappy with the high rates and poor service (Carrol, 1995).