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Abstract:
this paper focuses on the impact and role of the 2008 Olympic Games
on Beijing's communications sector in terms of infrastructure construction,
technological development, telecoms consumption, brand creation
and improvement of the overall strength of the sector.
Key
Words: Digital Olympics; Incremental Investment; Incremental Gains;
Economic Traction
1 Introduction
The
date of July 13, 2001 marks an exciting historical moment. On that
day the centennial Olympic dream of the Chinese people finally came
true. The world soon turned its eyes on China and Beijing. Beijing,
with her glorious ancient civilization and modern beauty, is highlighting
her international metropolitan status. To honor its "Tech Olympics"
commitment in the Olympic bid, Beijing's infocom sector is proactively
and ambitiously preparing for the gala seven years ahead. At present,
"Digital Olympics" has become a main theme in Beijing's
informatization process and her "Digital Beijing" drive.
Pioneered by leading information technologies and guaranteed by
sound network facilities, strong network features as well as fast
and convenient communications services, the city's communications
sector will take advantage of this opportunity to create a favorable
informatized environment. As of 2008, basically anybody anytime
at any Olympic-related venue can access affordable, content-rich,
language-friendly and personalized information in a secure, convenient,
and efficient may to demonstrate to the world the soaring growth
of Beijing's communications sector and China's behemoth achievements
in its informatization process.
Beijing's
communications sector as a key constituent of the national economy
is playing a pivotal role in social economic development. Especially
in recent years, accompanied by the development of global information
technologies, the revolution in the information industry as well
as China's favorable and stable economic operation environment,
Beijing's communications sector has been keeping a growth rate triple
that of GDP. As of 2001, Beijing's total telecoms business volume
hit 18.95 billion yuan, and the communications turnover topped 18.38
billion yuan. Fixed line users in the city amounted to 5.257 million,
and mobile users reached 6.174 million. Main line teledensity arrived
at 41.1%, and mobile teledensity rose to 48.3%. The total length
of fiber cores hit 600,000 km, and the city owns the largest SDH
MAN in the world. Meanwhile, the data and multimedia communications
network covers the whole city, with Internet users amounting to
approximately 3.3 million.
The "Digital
Olympics" system project is undoubtedly an accelerator for
the progress of Beijing's communications sector. Based on a successful
implementation of the 10th Five-Year-Plan of the municipality, the
sector will further improve its network capability, adjust its investment
structure, conform to the requirements contained in the Digital
Olympics plan to adopt the most advanced and mature technologies
at home and abroad in building a basic Olympic network and employing
the most scientific operation and maintenance mechanism as well
as operation and management philosophy for a guaranteed network
operation. Therefore, "Digital Olympics" is not only an
arduous challenge, but also offers a hard-to-get development opportunity
for Beijing's communications sector. Opportunity goes hand in hand
with challenge, and all we can do is to go forward and not the contrary.
This is a historical lesson posed by the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing's
communications sector.
2 The role of Olympic Games in the development of Beijing's
communications sector
The construction
of Olympic Games is a system project, covering construction of contest
venues, urban roads, transportation, environment, sanitation, health
care, security, catering, travel, business, trade, information and
so forth. The glamour of the information technology lies in its
pervasive application in all walks of life to the effect of improving
the average social productivity, enriching social wealth, stimulating
consumption and investment and thus promoting the overall development
of the national economy. Therefore, from both direct and indirect
perspectives, the role of the Olympic Games is extremely significant
in the progress of Beijing's communications sector.
2.1 The role of Olympic Games in promoting construction of
communications infrastructure
The
contest venues of the Games are mainly located in one central area
and three subareas. The central area is within the Olympic Park,
and the three subareas include the College Area, the West Community
and the North Attraction Site. 37 venues are to be built, with 32
within Beijing and 5 outside Beijing. Among the 32 contest venues
within Beijing, 19 will be newly built (including 6 temporary ones),
13 will be reconstructed or expanded ones. In addition, 59 training
venues will be reconstructed along with special facilities for the
Disabled Olympic Games. Modern Olympic contests entail rather high
technological content. Hence, the communications sector needs to
take advantage of state-of-the-art digital network technologies,
remote audio/video transmission technologies as well as graph display
technologies to provide comprehensive information services for the
Games. To that end, we must build up cutting-edge Olympic information
systems, timing and scoring systems and result processing systems;
leverage artificial intelligence technologies to remove the "language
barrier" in the way of games, and help game participants communicate
with each other. We must also make use of smart card technologies
to offer secure and convenient services for participants in their
registration, security identification and payment activities, set
up a card-based payment network and a satisfactory card-based payment
environment and raise the intelligence level of venue facilities
with a view to providing multiple personalized information services.
Besides
contest venues, facilities to be built also include the Olympic
Village, the Correspondent Village, the International Press Center
and the International Broadcasting Center as well as supporting
hotels. In 2008, members of the Olympic family, correspondents,
sponsors and other VIPs will be hospitalized in more than 70 star-level
hotels and villages. Star-level hotels are to accommodate 22,300
guest rooms; the Correspondent Village is to hold 10,000 apartments;
athletes to check in are to number at least 16,000. The total reception
capability will hit 1 million people, including both spectators
and tourists. Such a huge customer base requires the communications
sector to take a lead on the way ahead. By that time, the communications
sector in Beijing will have set up private communications networks
for the Games, including a fixed telephone network with a capacity
of 40,000 lines and a mobile network with a capacity of 500,000
subscribers. Both networks will achieve full coverage and no-blocking
dialing. Furthermore, video, audio and data networks and wireless
trunking technologies will all become intelligence-based. A data
network of high reliability and efficiency will serve as a strong
backing for information transmission. The backbone network of the
Games will be based on Beijing's urban fiber optical network and
connect to other cities via the fiber facility, linking contest
and non-contest venues. Moreover, an 800MHz digital trunking network
will be rolled out to provide 15,000 walkie-talkies for the Games.
In addition, a special Olympic E-commerce platform and an official
website will be built up.
The benefit of the Games does not only lie in the event itself,
but also comes from its strong radiation and traction effect that
benefits related sectors and leads to more urban construction efforts.
It is reported that in the next seven years, Beijing will accelerate
reconstruction of outdated and dilapidated houses. In 2001, the
city completed eight million square meters of housing projects.
The city will also expedite construction of such projects as railway
transportation, civil roads and expressways. As of 2008, 147.5km
new railways will be completed, adding the total mileage to 201km.
The total length of expressways will amount to 718km, and the total
road mileage will top 14700km. Besides, 291km of civil roads will
be built or rebuilt. In that process, a key task is to set up an
intelligent traffic deployment system, a modern traffic management
information system and a systemized traffic safety management system.
Also, landmark information buildings and a large-scale modern business
headquarter called the Central Business District (CBD) will come
into shape. All this will in turn trigger a massive demand for communications
services. Communications infrastructures (including pipelines and
optical cables) will be built in parallel with the construction
of roads, light rails, houses and buildings with a view to guaranteeing
smooth operation of communications lines and a good coverage.
As is roughly estimated, in the next seven years, Beijing will be
putting approximately 70 billion yuan into the communications sector.
2.2 The role of Olympic Games in promoting the development
of communications technologies
As
the mankind marches into the 21st century, communications technologies
are growing at a dazzling pace and introducing profound changes
to people's ways of communications. From the perspective of the
overall development trend, we may find the increasingly prevalent
penetration of packetization in switching technology, IP in service
application, wireless means in broadband access as well as fiber
optics and broadband in transmission links. As an eye catcher across
the globe, the role of Olympic Games in the development of communications
technologies cannot be easily overlooked. Since the 1964 Tokyo Olympic
Games, each game has had its own technical theme. See Table 1 for
details.
The 2000 Sydney Olympic Games scored marked successes. However,
major deficiencies were found in the construction of the broadband
network. The recently closed 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic
Games did not come up with technical glitches given its small scale.
Whereas, the aftermath of 9.11 made the security of network communications
a great concern in that event. Due to limitations in the development
of its communications networks (currently being evolved to IP switching
from circuit switching), Athens chose not to highlight a technical
theme in the 2004 Games but to focus on fostering the Olympic spirit.
Therefore, between 2000 in Sydney to 2008 in Beijing, there exists
a vacuum stage in terms of technological development in the Olympic
history. This represents a singular opportunity for Beijing to demonstrate
to the world its new level of development of communications technologies
and new prospect of applications.
For that purpose, Beijing's communications sector will accelerate
study and application of leading technologies so as to reach and
maintain a first-rate technological level in world communications
arena. We expect the following as prospective mainstream technologies
to be applied in the 2008 Olympic Games:
i)
Based on the technological trend and technological growth momentum,
it is estimated that by 2008, the all-optical network will see fundamental
progress. DWDM-based intelligent optical network is bound to become
the core technology adopted in the transport network of that era.
Hence, the basic network of the 2008 Games is to be built on the
metro intelligent optical network of Beijing.
ii)
ATM technology is suited to multi-service access, and is well adapted
to the bursty and rate-variable features of data services at guaranteed
QoS. It is on the way to integrate with IP to evolve to MPLS and
thus become the mainstream routing switching technology for the
2008 Olympic Games.
iii)
Super-capacity SDH bandwidth management equipment will play a major
role in the management and deployment of 155Mit/s bandwidth. MSPP
appears as an effective means to achieve multi-service access.
iv)
End-to-end Ethernet service will represent a key direction in the
development of telecoms transport network, especially in the metro
network. It is particularly suited to IP service delivery. It is
estimated that by 2008 Olympic Games Ethernet will possibly become
a mainstream transport means for metro IP services.
v)
Broadband integrated access represents the general direction of
the development of the access network. Fiber access and wireless
access will constitute two major access methods in the future. It
is estimated that the emerging wireless access technology will play
an important role in the delivery of wireless data communications
services at Olympic contest venues and related sites.
vi) It is
estimated that by 2008 Olympic Games, 3G technology will become
a mature mainstream technology to support voice and multimedia data
services at high-quality, high spectrum efficiency and low transmission
cost.
2.3 The role of Olympic Games in stimulating communications
consumption
As
of 1999, the total nationwide communications consumption already
amounted to 308.35 billion yuan, implying a per capita consumption
of 245 yuan. The growth margin of communications consumption is
way ahead of that of social consumption, and is making up an increasingly
higher proportion year by year in the total social consumption amount.
In 1995, the average national consumption level of domestic inhabitants
was 2236 yuan; in 1999, the figure climbed to 2973 yuan, an increase
of 33%; in the same period, the communications consumption level
rose from 105 yuan to 245 yuan, an increase of 133.5%. The proportion
of per capita communications consumption in the total social consumption
grew from 4.7% in 1995 to 7.2% in 1999.
As the capital city, Beijing in 2000 saw a per capita communications
consumption of 370 yuan and an annual growth rate of 40%. With communications
technologies growing at a stunning rate, the variety and quality
of communications services being further improved and the tariff
on a stable decline, the momentum of rising communications consumption
is quite robust. Olympic Games as a unique world event will gather
people of different races, colors and cultural backgrounds in Beijing
to take part in games, to view, organize or broadcast games, or
to join sightseeing, investment or business contact programs. All
those activities imply strong market demands for communications
services, which will in turn further stimulate consumption on communications.
Specifically, the stimulation effect of Olympic Games is reflected
in the following aspects:
2.3.1 The Olympic Games will stimulate the consumption on long-distance
telephone service
Seen from the trend of variation in international long-distance
traffic in other Olympic hosting cities, the average growth rate
of international long-distance traffic during the Olympiad is above
20%. It is estimated that in 2008 the international long-distance
traffic (including IP telephony) will rise by 35% (see Table 2).
2.3.2 The Olympic Games will bring more mobile communications
consumption
The
recent statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry shows
that apparent changes have taken place in our telecoms consumption
structure. The old fixed-dominated consumption has shifted to a
more diversified landscape. The consumption on mobile services is
most conspicuous. Prepaid, SMS and Mobile Internet services launched
by carriers have been warmly received among subscribers, making
the mobile business account for 42% in the total telecoms service
revenue and mobile communications a pillar business in propelling
the consumption on communications in China.
As of last December, the number of mobile subscribers in Beijing
was 6.174 million, and the number of fixed line subscribers was
5.257 million. Mobile business contributed nearly 8 billion yuan
in revenue, while fixed business only turned in about 5 billion
yuan, demonstrating how popular the mobile service is. Considering
the Olympic Games, it is predicted that in 2007 Beijing's mobile
subscribers will have hit 10.4 million in number, with an average
monthly consumption of about 300 yuan by middle range and high-end
subscribers.
Why can the Olympiad expand the demand for mobile services? The
reason is as follows: firstly, the added potential mobile subscribers
during the Games are mainly flowing and temporary ones. Peak usage
will arrive one month before the opening ceremony and during the
Games. Because handsets, notebooks and PDAs are all mobile terminals
with clear-cut personalized features, they may satisfy people's
desire to communicate anywhere, anytime and with anybody. That is
why mobile services are so popular among game participants. During
the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, mobile communications played a key
role in ensuring the success of the event. Back then, nearly 50%
of base stations within the city proper was used to cover the Olympic
Village to satisfy the huge traffic demand; secondly, facilities
for the Olympic Games are mostly ad hoc ones, thus requiring a high
reusability of communications equipment. The placement of mobile
base stations just satisfies such a demand, saving costs and improving
the efficiency of equipment usage; thirdly, new mobile services,
such as SMS group sending, wireless Internet, mobile positioning,
mobile E-commerce and mobile payment, will become hot applications
in the 2008 Olympic Games and bring incremental gains. It is estimated
that the 2008 Olympiad will usher in a 5% growth for the mobile
communications business.
2.3.3 The Olympic Games will spur more data and Internet consumption
It has
been calculated that Beijing in 2008 will provide the Olympic Games
with 500 data links, most of which will be operating at rates of
over 2Mbit/s and up to 155Mbit/s (double those of Sydney Games).
Meanwhile, broadband access means such as ADSL, Wireless Broadband
LAN and LAN will be available, contributing an outgoing bandwidth
of up to Gigabits per second. By that time, real-time timing and
scoring information, news release as well as video feeding can all
be realized on the network. In addition to professional applications,
the Internet is enjoying widespread popularity among athletes given
its strength in web surfing, E-mailing, chatting, on-line gaming,
MP3 downloading and VOD services. It is reported that in 2001 when
the World Universiaide was held in Beijing, the most thriving business
was cybercafes, which saw almost full attendance and earned several
hundred thousand yuan every day. As the Internet is becoming more
and more popular, it has turned into a universal communications
tool around the world. By 2008, people's reliance on it will stand
comparison with clothing, food, shelter and means of travel. Therefore,
we are justified to believe that 2008 will bring a new Internet
application peak for Beijing, thus stimulating the growth of consumption
on communications. We may also leverage the broad reach of the Internet
by building special Olympic websites and joining hands with over
300 ISPs and ICPs in Beijing to launch rich and valuable cyber contents
and applications aimed at giving publicity to Beijing and China.
It is estimated that the 2008 Olympic Games will contribute a 15%
growth of consumption on data and Internet services for Beijing.
2.3.4 The Olympic Games as a traction to sector economics
In
recent years, the growth of the communications sector in our country
has become a key constituent of the national economy, featuring
the fastest growth rate among all sectors. In 2000, the sector alone
grew by 42%. See Figure 1.
All
telecom carriers in Beijing have mapped out special study plans
and investment plans for the 2008 Olympic Games. The sector after
balancing all investment items earmarked 60 billion yuan for its
regular development from 2002 to 2007. Factoring in the Games, the
planned investment amounts to approximately 63 billion yuan - an
increment of some 3 billion yuan. Regular development is expected
to rack up a total communications business turnover of 186 billion
yuan. Factoring the Games, the figure will then be 196 billion yuan
- an increment of 10 billion yuan, implying an annual growth rate
of 11.85%. This will result in an increase of the sector productivity
in 2007 from the normal 2.8 million yuan/person year to 3 million
yuan/person year, thereby greatly pushing forward the growth of
the overall economic strength of Beijing's communications sector
and making it ascend the better-than-average standard in the world.
In addition, according to statistics, from 1998 to 2000 in a row,
the output value of transportation, posts and telecoms sectors in
Beijing account for 7.7% in GDP (see Figure 2). If transportation
and posts sectors are excluded from the calculation, then the telecoms
sector will make up about 5%. Economists predict that if the 2008
Games were to drive up 6 percentage points for Beijing's GDP, the
local communications sector will contribute approximately 0.3 percentage
point.
2.4 The Olympic Games is an opportunity for Beijing's communications
sector to establish an international brand
Over the past century, Beijing's telecoms sector has established
a creditable corporate brand, which embraces the incumbent BeijingCom
as well as incumbent carriers represented by Beijing Mobile, Beijing
Unicom, Beijing Railcom and so on. The Beijing's communications
sector is expanding its reach at home and abroad.
Seen from the experiences of all the past Olympiads, one may find
that almost each Olympiad would forge a world-renowned communications
brand, such as KT in 1988 Seoul Games and Telstra in 2000 Sydney
Games, which all gained a fame by successfully operating telecoms
networks for Olympic Games. Therefore, an excellent performance
of a Digital Olympics in Beijing will also establish an international
brand for her communications sector. This will be a rich wealth
left in Beijing following the Digital Olympics.
2.5 The Olympic Games will improve the overall strength of
Beijing's communications sector
The
network construction aimed at Olympic Games is a touchstone relating
whether or not the communications industry in one country is able
to be established in the international community, participate in
competition and score sustainable development.
Success is out of strength. The network construction aimed at Olympic
Games is a system project. Telecoms network carriers must guarantee
a successful operation of all processes, including preparation,
planning, implementation, maintenance and reutilization. This will
require the support of multiple disciplines, such as network construction,
capital operation, cooperation and coordination, manpower deployment,
risk management, operation and maintenance, long-term planning,
etc.
Only
by satisfying requirements of all the above requirements can we
make come true a successful "digital" Olympic Games. To
that end, we must enhance the corporate strength in all respects.
Digital Olympic Games have become our strong source of motivation.
We will try every best to score parallel development in aspects
like technology, management and service with a view to establishing
a brand-new standard.
Beijing's
telecoms sector has taken part in the construction of communications
facilities for all the past big events, including 1990 Asian Games
and 2001 Universiaide. Accompanied by the sound success of each
event, the sector drew valuable experiences and marked progress,
as evidenced by the optimized network, more scientific management
and improved staff capability.
It
is proved that Beijing's telecoms sector is blessed with top-notch
traditions and advantages. Digital Olympics will be turning into
a powerful catalyst for a fundamental qualitative change in our
comprehensive strength. What we are going to demonstrate to the
world will be a strong international communications sector.
3 Conclusion
As
an infrastructure of the national economy, the telecoms network
is a key indicator of the modernization level of a country and a
city. In the sense of economic construction and social development,
it is of crucial significance to build an advanced communications
network. The telecoms industry as a high-tech industry is also a
major force driving the progress of science and technology. It is
profoundly affecting the social economic structure and industrial
structure. It is estimated that by 2010, the information industry
will become the No. 1 pillar industry in the national economy. Beijing's
successful bid of the 2008 Olympic Games has provided Beijing with
an unprecedented historical development opportunity, speeding up
her pace of building a modern metropolis from all perspectives.
The future construction and development of Beijing will fully reflect
the concept of "Human Olympics, Green Olympics and Tech Olympics".
Looking ahead at the post-Olympic era, we are convinced that Beijing's
communications sector will inherit and bring forward the huge spiritual
and physical legacies from the 2008 Games. The status of Beijing's
communications network will be much consolidated in the international
telecoms industry. As a regional or even global backbone node hubbing
international traffic, the sector will further improve its capability
in handling large-scale international events and conducting efficient
management. There is no question that by adopting first-rate technologies
and delivering international service and advanced service applications,
the overall development level of Beijing's communications sector
will reach or even surpass that of other world metropolises over
the same period.
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Biography:
A
graduate from Beijing Technological University, Ms. Ma Yujuan is
currently working for the Planning, Research and Development Center
of Beijing Telecoms Planning and Designing Institute as a China
Certified Public Accountant.
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