Examining the Influence of Government Policy on Broadband Internet Access - Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies - page 50

broadband deployment and adoption in the case
of China.
The following section will briefly discuss a
framework for analysis followed by an in-depth
examination of the impact of the government
policies, including national strategies, regula-
tory frameworks and competition, on broadband
Internet access in the case of China.

broadband Internet access. The following sections
discuss how various government efforts and ac-
tions China has taken affect broadband deployment
and performance.

Regulations of Telecommunications
and Broadband Internet Access

China's telecommunications and Internet sec-
tor is largely governed by Telecommunications
Regulation of the Peoples' Republic of China,
which was passed at the Thirty-first Session of
the Standing Committee of the State Council
held on September 20, 2000. According to the
regulation, telecommunications service is catego-
rised into basic telecommunications service and
value-added telecommunications service. Basic
telecommunications service means the provision
of public network infrastructure, the transmission
of public data and basic voice communication.
Value-added telecoms service means the provi-
sion of telecommunications and information
services through public network. The provision
of the transmission network infrastructure and the
Interconnecting networks fall into the category of
basic telecommunications service. The service
licences are to be approved by State Council and
restricted to State controlled enterprises. Specifi-

A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS

Governments around the world have taken a
multi-faceted approach to promoting broadband
development, including reliance on market forces,
regulations and grants program as well as na-
tional broadband policies. Figure 1. shows how
the various policy elements interplay to affect
broadband service deployment and performance.
For instances, the elements of regulations, mar-
ket forces and national strategies have a direct
impact on broadband supply and access while
regulations, industry structure and national poli-
cies affect market forces directly. Regulations,
national broadband strategies have some influence
on telecom industry structure.
This study attempts to use the above multiple-
perspective model (Figure 1) to examine the influ-
ence of the Chinese government policies on

Figure 1. Model of the policy factors and broadband service deployment