Unleashing innovative 5G mobile, fixed telecom services and system integration

Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited (HTHK) and HKBN Group (HKBN) have announced the expansion of their strategic collaboration to target the enterprise market in Hong Kong. In addition to their existing Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) collaboration, the companies will now offer 5G mobile, fixed telecom network services, and system integration (SI) solutions to corporate customers. This collaboration aims to provide comprehensive digital solutions to enterprises in sectors such as finance, retail chain stores, and public utilities.

By combining HTHK’s robust 5G network with HKBN’s fixed network services, the collaboration will enable fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and offer advanced 5G mobile solutions, fibre optic network services, and diversified ICT services to meet the technical needs of enterprises in Hong Kong. HTHK’s 5G network provides high-speed connectivity, ultra-low latency, and extensive coverage across the territory.

Kenny Koo, Executive Director and CEO of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Limited (HTHKH), expressed the company’s intention to expand the strategic collaboration with HKBN, leveraging the strengths of both companies to provide innovative 5G and fixed network enterprise solutions. The collaboration aims to support corporate customers in their digital transformation journey, enhance operational efficiency, and strengthen the companies’ position in the business-to-business market.

William Yeung, HKBN Co-Owner and Executive Vice-chairman, emphasized the joint efforts to expand their presence in the corporate market, focusing on 5G, network solutions, and digital transformation. He highlighted the increased demand for network services and digital solutions from enterprise customers, particularly in the finance and retail industries. By leveraging their tri-carrier network and HTHK’s 5G mobile network solutions, the collaboration aims to provide competitive and comprehensive telecom and ICT services to customers, achieving synergy and mutual success.

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ACMA investigations found 3 telco provides that were guilty

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has taken action against a number of telcos after compliance failures were used by scammers to send SMS road toll, Medicare and Australia Post impersonation scams to consumers.

ACMA investigations found Sinch Australia Pty Ltd (Sinch), Infobip Information Technology Pty Ltd (Infobip) and Phone Card Selector Pty Ltd (Phone Card) allowed SMS to be sent using text-based sender IDs without sufficient checks to ensure they were being used legitimately.

The ACMA found Infobip allowed 103,146 non-compliant SMS to be sent, which included scams impersonating well known Australian road toll companies. Sinch allowed 14,291 non-complaint SMS, which included Medicare and Australia Post impersonation scams.

Phone Card was also found to have inadequate systems in place to comply with the rules, however there is no evidence that scammers exploited the opportunities it created.

Text-based sender IDs can be used by scammers to pose as legitimate organisations such as government agencies, banks, and road toll companies. Under the Reducing Scam Calls and Scam SMS Code, Australian telcos must obtain evidence from customers that they have a legitimate reason to use text-based sender IDs (such as business names) in SMS.

ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the investigations showed scammers will readily take advantage of vulnerabilities created by telcos.

“While there is no suggestion the telcos were involved in scam activity themselves, scammers have used their failures to prey on Australians. This wouldn’t have happened if the companies had adequate processes in place and complied with the rules,” she said.

“Scams that impersonate reputable organisations can be particularly hard for consumers to recognise and there’s no telling how much damage could have been done as a result of these scam texts.”

The ACMA has given Sinch and Infobip formal directions to comply with the obligations, the strongest enforcement action available for code breaches. Phone Card has been given a formal warning.

Combating SMS and identity theft phone scams is an ACMA compliance priority and telcos may face penalties of up to $US250,000 for breaching ACMA directions to comply with the code.

The ACMA has also welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement that the agency will develop an SMS sender ID register to help prevent offshore scammers impersonating trusted brands and government agencies.

“This initiative will help close a key vulnerability used by scammers. The ACMA looks forward to working with industry and trusted brands as we implement this new protection,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

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HTML attacks can be tricky to detect

Businesses in Asia-Pacific could find themselves vulnerable to attack via HTML attachment, as the proportion of malicious files doubles in less than 12 months, according to the most recent Threat Spotlight from Barracuda, a trusted partner and leading provider of cloud-enabled security solutions.

Analysing millions of messages and files scanned by Barracuda’s security technologies in APAC and across the globe, the new report shows how in March 2023 just under half (45.7 per cent) of all HTML attachments scanned by Barracuda were malicious, more than double the proportion (21 per cent) reported in May last year.

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is used to create and structure content that is displayed online. It is also used in email communication – for example in automated newsletters, marketing materials, and more. In many cases, reports are attached to an email in HTML format (with the file extension .html, .htm or .xhtml, for example). Attackers can successfully leverage HTML as an attack technique in phishing and credential theft or for the delivery of malware.

According to Barracuda’s Threat Spotlight, not only is the overall volume of malicious HTML attachments increasing, but almost a year on from Barracuda’s last report, HTML attachments remain the file type most likely to be used for malicious purposes.

HTML attacks can be tricky to detect, as instead of hackers having to include malicious links in the body of an email, which would be detected, attackers instead work to embed HTML attachments within emails disguised as weekly reports and other generic work email types, as a way to trick users into clicking on phishing links. From there, user credentials can be phished by a third-party machine, whether via a phishing site or a phishing form embedded in the attachment.

“The security industry has been highlighting the trend of cybercriminals weaponising HTML for years – and evidence suggests it remains a successful and popular attack tool,” said Fleming Shi, Chief Technology Officer, Barracuda.

“Getting the right security in place is as important now as it has ever been. This means having effective, AI-powered email protection in place that can evaluate the content and context of an email beyond scanning links and attachments. Other important elements include implementing robust multifactor authentication or – ideally – Zero Trust Access controls; having automated tools to respond to and remediate the impact of any attack; and training people to spot and report suspicious messages.”

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ACCCSeveral aspects have been identified that reflect issues raised in the ongoing industry

After a thorough assessment of NBN Co’s proposed variation to its Special Access Undertaking (SAU), and informed by constructive and extensive engagement with NBN Co, Retail Service Providers, consumer representatives and other stakeholders, the ACCC has today released a draft decision to reject the proposed variation.

“The ACCC can only decide to accept or reject NBN Co’s variation proposal, and our draft decision today is to reject this proposal. However, in making our decision, we have identified several aspects of it that reflect issues raised in the ongoing industry consultation process and which represent a significant improvement on the current SAU and earlier variation proposals,” ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said.

“We have also outlined some specific issues NBN Co could address to accelerate the pathway to an acceptable variation.”

Alongside its draft decision, the ACCC has published a letter received in March from NBN Co in which NBN Co outlines several changes it would be willing to make in a further variation proposal in response to concerns raised with the November proposal. The ACCC welcomes NBN Co’s preparedness to make changes that could result in a revised SAU variation that is capable of acceptance.

The SAU is a key part of the economic regulation of the NBN. It sets the rules for broadband providers to access the NBN over the coming decades, which can include minimum service standards and wholesale price controls.

Today’s draft decision explains why the ACCC is not at this time satisfied that the November proposed variation would result in access terms that promote the long-term interests of consumers over the duration of the variation, due to limitations in the processes under which those terms of access are periodically reset. Further, the ACCC considers the proposal would require revenue allowances from 1 July 2032 that would not create incentives for a regulated entity to act efficiently.

The ACCC also considers that NBN Co’s proposed access terms for the first three years following acceptance of the variation would pose risks to efficiency and competition. This is because the cost of services supplied using the standard wholesale offer would fall over a very wide range, and the variation would not commit NBN Co to providing suitable measures to assist retailers with this residual cost uncertainty.

A commitment to consult with retailers and consumer advocates over planned service improvements would also assist NBN Co in more effectively resolving issues that drive poor consumer sentiment, including through reprioritising its investment and work programs.

The ACCC is now seeking stakeholder submissions on its draft decision, as well as industry views on the further changes NBN Co has proposed in its March letter.

Should NBN Co withdraw its current variation proposal and resubmit a revised one, the ACCC would then publish and call for submissions on this new proposal.

“Australia needs an efficient, reliable, and affordable national broadband network to be a world-leading digital economy. We are acutely aware that the process to vary the current NBN Special Access Undertaking has been running for two years and we appreciate the open and ongoing engagement by the sector through that time. This is critical, national infrastructure and to accept a variation we must be satisfied it promotes the long-term interests of Australians,” Brakey said.

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Demand for high-speed broadband services continues to surge in the post-pandemic era

Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited (“HKBN”) has launched the world’s first Money-Back Fibre Broadband Dual Guarantee, along with an upgraded 2000M fibre broadband service, pledging to offer smooth and speedy broadband experiences with industry-leading service quality and network performance.

Demand for high-speed broadband services continues to surge in the post-pandemic era. Working, learning, or gaming at home requires the support of a fast and stable network. As a leading integrated telecom and ICT solutions provider, HKBN is again bringing disruption to the market by offering its Fibre Broadband Dual Guarantee with “Speed Guarantee”* and “Low Latency Guarantee” designated for gamers, ensuring smooth network speed and low-latency gaming experience with designated popular game servers. Customers will be entitled for twice the daily fee for each day which the service is out of guaranteed range after application and approval. Both new and existing customers who subscribe to designated home broadband service plans can enjoy the guarantee!

In parallel, HKBN has also launched an upgraded 2000M broadband service for users who demand the ultimate in performance and speed. The upgraded 2000M service offers customers the flexibility to choose their preferred routers, including the latest Wi-Fi 6/6E router series with 2.5Gbps WAN ports, customers can experience ultra-fast Internet that surpasses the previous download speed limit of 1000M, doubling the download speed to satisfy the surging network needs of households with multiple devices, and fully experience unimpeded performance on the latest mobile phones, tablets, and computers.

Rex Hui, HKBN Co-Owner and Director — Product Development & Management, Residential Solutions said, “Daring to challenge and innovate has been the DNA of HKBN’s business. With our disruptive first^ Fibre Broadband Dual Guarantee and upgraded 2000M broadband service launch, we’re literally bringing customers world-leading network experiences that address both speed and usage needs. In the future, we’ll never stop challenging ourselves to improve service quality, so as to deliver unparalleled network services to our customers.”

HKBN is the first telecommunications provider in the world to offer compensation in Hong Kong dollars for the “Fibre Broadband Dual Guarantee”, and the only telecommunications provider in Hong Kong to offer guaranteed speeds for designated 100M to 2000M fibre broadband services. (As of 24th April 2023)

“Speed Guarantee” is only applicable to designated 100M/200M/500M/800M/1000M/2000M home broadband service plans and non-fibre-to-the-home technology 100M home broadband service plans. “Speed Guarantee” refers to the “Hong Kong Broadband Network Speed Test” result, which, except designated circumstances, shall not be lower than the relevant “Guarantee Range” of the respective broadband speed service plan selected by Subscriber.

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There are several generative AI tools emerging in the market

The immense popularity gained by ChatGPT since its launch in November 2022 has brought generative AI tools under the spotlight, prompting many companies cutting across industries to aggressively explore their capabilities and use cases. Telcos are no exception to this trend and are quickly warming up to their benefits, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Pradeepthi Kantipudi, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “There are several generative AI tools emerging in the market, capable of generating conversational text, and customized content like images, music, or codes based on a given prompt, with ChatGPT especially drawing attention for its instant and near accurate output. For telcos, ChatGPT could bring disruption in several business functions, including customer service, network management, fraud detection, sales, and marketing.”

Samrat Volam, Technology Lead Analyst at GlobalData, adds: “For instance, integrating ChatGPT with telecoms’ traditional customer service channels can help deliver instant, automated support round-the-clock, provide information on the product and service portfolio, handle wide-ranging customer inquiries and issues quickly and efficiently, reduce wait times, and boost customer satisfaction. To better serve a geographically diverse customer base, telecom companies can also employ ChatGPT to provide translation for customers who speak different languages. In this way, AI-powered tools can help telcos in enhancing customer experience and cutting costs.”

By presenting customers with tailored product recommendations and exclusive offers based on previous purchases and interests, ChatGPT can also aid in boosting sales and revenue of telecom companies. Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to identify and monitor fraudsters, even build a database of information that can be used to prevent fraud attempts.

Pradeepthi continues: “With several telcos testing and exploring new use cases for ChatGPT, investment in the telecommunications sector is set to increase in the short to medium term. This is put into perspective by GlobalData’s market opportunity forecasts for AI, which estimate enterprise AI spending in the communications sector at $US1.6 billion in 2022 and project it to increase up to $US2.9 billion by 2026.”

Another interesting trend emerging is that the telcos have already started working on their own ChatGPT-like versions. KT, a South Korean telecommunications company, is working on its own version of the OpenAI model. SK Telecom is also planning to launch its own AI chatbot and launched a beta version called “A.” (pronounced “A dot”) in South Korea in May 2022. Also, China Telecom announced plans to build an AI foundation model to develop an industrial ChatGPT version for the telecommunications industry.

Samrat concludes: “The benefits of ChatGPT as a useful tool for customer care and technical support in the telecommunications industry are evident. As the technology matures and companies explore novel applications, the telecom companies stand to benefit by offering an enhanced customer experience and thereby reducing churn and improving their sales and profits.”

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Optus has also accused of breaching contractual obligations to customers

Leading class action law firm Slater and Gordon has issued proceedings against Optus on behalf of current and former customers whose personal information – including key identity documents – were compromised in the September data breach.

The statement of claim, lodged in the Federal Court, accuses Optus of breaching privacy, telecommunication, and consumer laws as well as the company’s internal policies by:

• failing to protect or take reasonable steps to protect customers’ personal information from unauthorised access or disclosure
• failing to destroy or de-identify former customers’ personal information, and
• failing to ensure that only those who had a legitimate reason for having access to customers’ personal information could access it.

Optus has also been accused in the class action of breaching contractual obligations to customers along with its duty of care to ensure customers did not suffer harm arising from the unauthorised access or disclosure of their personal information. It is claimed such harm was reasonably foreseeable if customer data was compromised.

Group members are seeking compensation for losses the data breach caused, including time and money spent replacing identity documents in addition to other measures to protect their privacy and prevent the increased likelihood of them falling victim to scams and identity theft. They are also seeking damages for non-economic losses such as distress, frustration, and disappointment.

Optus announced on 22 September last year that the personal information of up to 10 million of its current and former customers had been compromised in a cyberattack. The telco revealed that information including customer names, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses were accessed by, and/or disclosed to, an unknown number of unauthorised persons. For a subset of customers, their addresses, ID document numbers such as driver’s license, Medicare cards and/or passport numbers had also been compromised. The personal information of more than 10,000 customers was subsequently published online when ransom demands were made.

Slater and Gordon Class Actions Practice Group Leader Ben Hardwick described what occurred as “an extremely serious privacy breach both in terms of the number of people affected and the nature of the information that was compromised.

“Very real risks were created by the disclosure of this private information that Optus customers had every right to believe was securely protected by their telecommunications and internet provider,” Hardwick said.

“The type of information made accessible put affected customers at a higher risk of being scammed and having their identities stolen, and Optus should have had adequate measures in place to prevent that.

“Concerningly, the data breach has also potentially jeopardised the safety of a large number of particularly vulnerable groups of Optus customers, such as victims of domestic violence, stalking and other crimes, as well as those working in frontline occupations including the defence force and policing.”

He said more than 100,000 of Optus’s current and former customers had so far registered for the class action. Amongst that group were:

• a domestic violence victim who spent money that was intended for counselling for her children on increasing security measures around the house, including installing video cameras and extra locks on doors and windows
• a former Optus customer who had previously been burgled and had his identity stolen who now suffers severe anxiety after learning his personal information had been shared online
• a stalking victim who takes extreme measure to maintain her privacy, especially her address, who fears her life has genuinely been put in danger by the data breach
• a woman who is now too fearful to answer the telephone after noticing an increase in scam phone calls following the Optus cyberattack, and
• a retired police officer concerned that his home address may have been shared with criminals he was involved in the prosecution and incarceration of.

The lead applicant, who does not want his name disclosed out of fear he will be targeted by other cyber criminals or scammers, said that he had been left feeling “vulnerable, exposed and worried” after learning his personal information had been compromised.

“Not knowing what still might happen as a result of having my information accessed and by whom haunts me,” the Victorian man said.

“I had to make a lot of calls and do a lot of running around in the aftermath of this breach to make sure my bank account and other accounts hadn’t been compromised, and I noticed I was being targeted by phishing and other scams a lot more frequently.

“It feels like only a matter of time before I get scammed or defrauded, which is a constant worry that I didn’t have before I was let down by Optus. I would have thought that as big a company as Optus is, there would have much better data security in place than what it turns out they had, which is pretty concerning.”

The second lead applicant, who also does not want to be named to prevent further privacy or data security compromises, was one of the many thousands of affected Optus customers whose ID documents had to be subsequently replaced.

“It was incredibly stressful trying to get answers from Optus about what information had been exposed and then taking action to rectify the damage so I could try to stop anything else from happening,” the Queensland woman said.

“I spent a lot of time changing passwords to all my accounts, have been constantly checking that money hasn’t been stolen, and making sure I’ve done everything I can to protect myself. One of the worst aspects of all this was the fact that I had no control over what had happened, so it’s been overwhelming.”

Hardwick said many of the affected customers had expressed frustration about Optus’s delays in providing detailed information about the privacy breach, and inconsistencies with how the telco was treating one affected customer to the next.

“Some registrants have told us they were fobbed off when they sought information from Optus about exactly what data had been exposed, and others have informed us that Optus refused to pay for credit monitoring services on the basis they were no longer Optus customers,” he said.

“There appears to have been a piecemeal response from Optus, rather than a coordinated approach that made sure everyone whose data was compromised is treated the same.

“Any suggestion that affected customers have not suffered as a result of this data breach is like rubbing salt into the wounds of those who have lived it and are continuing to deal with the fallout,” he said.

Slater and Gordon has experience running group proceedings in relation to data privacy breaches. The firm continues to act for more than 1,000 refugees who succeeded in a landmark representative data breach complaint against the Australian government after their personal information was released online in 2014.

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The mobile telecoms industry continues to focus significantly on Radio Access Network

The mobile telecoms industry relies heavily on standardization for compatibility and interoperability between networks, devices, countries, and applications. Within The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), multiple companies are competing to influence the standards and capitalize on their leadership in intellectual property. In its new research service, Cellular Standards, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), global technology intelligence firm ABI Research has compiled a thorough and in-depth analysis of 3GPP 5G contribution metrics and 5G Standards Essential Patent (SEP) declarations to act as a first step toward measuring the market influence and technology innovation trend in 5G and mobile networks.

The mobile telecoms industry continues to focus significantly on Radio Access Network (RAN) technologies, which have been the biggest challenge to develop and fundamental to provide high-end user experiences for both consumers and enterprise users. “This is evident in the 3GPP 5G standardization process, where approximately 70 per cent of technical contributions and numerous discussions centre around specifications produced by radio network-related working groups. Furthermore, RAN technologies also dominate the 5G SEPs, with 93 per cent of all 5G SEP declarations targeting RAN WG TS. This means the industry continues to bank on RAN innovation as a dominating foundation to monetize their IPR across all cellular generations. 5G is no exception,” explains Gu Zhang, Cellular Standards & IPR Principal Analyst at ABI Research. “This highlights the critical importance of RAN technologies and their impact on the mobile communication industry but also outlines the one-sided development path 3GPP has been following so far. Therefore, it’s not a shock that the mobile industry cannot move past consumer-oriented business models and has not found success in enterprise use cases.”

Although RAN is crucial for mobile communications, commercializing 5G technology requires significant development beyond RAN. Many new concepts, including end-to-end network orchestration, network slicing, network automation, enterprise applications, advanced positioning, and service-oriented architecture, rely on advanced concepts that the RAN does not necessarily drive. However, the proportion of technical contributions to other parts of the network (i.e., non-RAN) working groups has improved significantly from 26 per cent to 42 per cent during the development of 5G releases from Releases 15 to today, while Release 18 work is still ongoing. This development could indicate that monetization of next-generation SEPs could be more distributed across RAN and other parts of the network, with a broader set of companies becoming more prevalent as standardization continues.

“Our new Cellular Standards & IPR research service identifies and analyses the industry players actively influencing the development of cellular technologies. It provides actional insight into contributions to the 3GPP standards and 5G SEPs across multiple organizations, technical specifications, and regions,” says Dimitris Mavrakis, Sr. Research Director, Cellular Standards & IPR at ABI Research. “Although counting contributions is not enough to recognize leaders in influencing 3GPP standardization processes, it is still a key element in identifying the active contributors to these standards as a first step of identifying innovation. Future work in this area will provide more visibility into quality aspects, but our current work indicates who the active companies are in both 3GPP and the IPR landscape.”

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Upgrading digital infrastructure in India

Nokia today announced that it has entered a partnership with Lightstorm, in India, to supply the latest WDM optical network solutions for Lightstorm’s network expansion into the Eastern and Northern regions of India. The deal includes integration and consulting services to assist Lightstorm in deploying Nokia’s latest C+L band WDM optical line system solutions, which also enables protection features to ensure network resiliency in the event of multiple fibre cuts. Recently Lightstorm completed the coverage enhancement.

Lightstorm is an innovative provider of carrier-neutral digital infrastructure to enterprise customers. Their SmartNet long-haul route in India offers a next generation network architecture for enterprise customers with reduced latency, 100 per cent uptime and full end-to-end control and management capabilities.

Lightstorm is extending its existing partnership with Nokia as it expands coverage east and north across large swathes of India. The extended network uses Nokia’s 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) optical transport platform and incorporates its fifth-generation coherent optic chipset (PSE-V) to expand total capacity to multi terabytes. The significant boost will help Lightstorm to offer added capacity for its existing customers and onboard new customers with a significantly higher baseline of services and benefits. 1830 is future proofed for Nokia’s sixth generation PSE-6 when capacity demands further increase.

Vinish Bawa, Head of Enterprise, Webscale & Emerging business, India at Nokia, said: “Nokia’s DWDM products offer high capacity and automation to enable cutting-edge digital services for enterprise customers across India. Our partnership with Lightstorm showcases our industry-leading portfolio in optical networking which will be integral to the Digital India vision.”

Rajiv Nayyar, Chief Operating Officer at Lightstorm, said: “Our partnership with Nokia will help us achieve our goals of rapid network route expansion with the benefit of added capacity. The expanded coverage will help Lightstorm cater to our customers’ increasing demand and help drive the Digital India vision.”

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1.7 billion calculations per second

“This year we are going to set up a more segmented data centre inside the enterprise and provide value-added data services, “said Shu Xiaozhong, head of Guizhou Tiancheng Elite Technology Holdings Co., Ltd. in Longli County, Guizhou.

This company has been a major provider of software for both public blood banks and digital outpatient services for vaccination in China. Though rooted in the software service sector for over a decade, Tiancheng Elite could previously only have been said to be a beneficiary of the development to big data in this province. Now, the construction of data centres for enterprises has become a new turning point for his company.

“Taking advantage of data sources, the company conducts data analysis and mining to precisely guide relevant industries and create data revenue. This year, it may amount to between 20 million and 50 million yuan,” said Shu Xiaozhong.

Guizhou, with its impressive landscape, is often shrouded in clouds and mist. The “Guizhou Cloud” now has a new meaning: data centres are Guizhou’s new special and competitive industry, and the Guian New Area in Guiyang City has become one of the leading data centre clusters in the world. Relying on the local favorable conditions of geology, climate and electricity, Guizhou supports the establishment and operation of data centres for China’s three major telecom operators, as well as Huawei, Tencent, Apple, and others, becoming one of the biggest centres of large and ultra-large data centres globally.

“In terms of its development of computing power, Guian is naturally endowed,” noted Ma Ningyu, the Mayor of Guiyang, and Director-General of Guian’s Administration Committee. Guian enjoys abundant local sources of electricity and stable geological conditions, furthermore, it’s cool climate and fresh air help data centres reduce energy consumption.

While constantly consolidating the construction of computing power infrastructure, China’s three major telecom operators are also accelerating their research on core computing technologies and actively promoting computing and network convergence (CNC).

What can you do in 1 second? Within one second from when a consumer presses the payment button on an e-commerce platform, 1.7 billion calculations have been made. Chen Jinhui, Director of the Maintenance Management Department at China Telecom Cloud Computing Information Park in Guizhou, explained that the construction and operation of the park begun in 2013, and has now become the largest data centre for Chinese Telecom’s southern operations. It was the first data centre launched in Guian, and its export bandwidth today has already reached 10Tb.

As a fundamental and strategic resource, data serves as the main engine driving the digital economy. In 2023, Guizhou will make efforts both internally and externally towards developing a new technological infrastructure for digital economic growth. Internally incentive policies for building the nationally integrated computing network (Guizhou hub node) will be formulated. The construction of data centres for China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Industrial Bank, Midea Cloud, Netease, and others will accelerate, and the data centres launched for China’s three telecom operators, Apple, Huawei and Tencent will be further expanded. Externally, Guizhou will build optical cables directly linking Guiyang and Guangzhou and optimize its routing and bandwidth towards Shanghai and Beijing.

In the era of the digital economy, data and computing power have become key factors for productivity and play a key role in restructuring factor resources, reshaping the structure of the economy and reforming the competitive landscape. Their role as both “foundations” and “enablers” have also become more pronounced. According to Ma Ningyu, China’s implementation of “channelling computer resources from the east to the west” will give full play to its institutional strengths and mechanisms, optimize its resource allocation, propel the coordinated development of both eastern and western regions, and ultimately bring about greater common prosperity.

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