Karamay becomes China's first city networked with Triple-Play

URUMQI- Karamay, an oil-rich city in Northwest China's Xinjiang autonomous region, became the first city in the country to provide bundled voice, video and data services to all residents.

Known as Triple-Play service, the system depends on a converged optic network jointly offered by Internet, cable TV and telecommunication providers.

In 2011, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and Karamay Radio and Television Transmission Co. jointly invested 220 million yuan ($36 million) to pilot the Triple-Play service.

Over the past three years, the single fibre optic connections have been installed into all residential communities in the city, enabling each of the city's roughly 130,000 households to have 100 megabits of Internet connectivity.

According to the city's information management bureau, the combined optic network building has not only reduced telecom infrastructure investment by 75 percent and maintenance costs by 50 percent when compared to the cost of facilities built separately by telecom and TV providers. They also helped residents save 60 percent on the services.

Karamay has become a demonstration city for the construction of a Triple-Play optic network, said Su Guoping, deputy director of the Xinjiang regional commission of economic and information technology.

Users can choose each of the telecom providers for the combined Internet, telecommunication and TV services at home.

Elsewhere in the country, the new network, which would help break-up traditional telecom and television monopolies, still faces difficulties being implemented.