The second batch of triple play pilots started to select the provincial capital plan or win

After the first batch of 12 pilot cities, the triple play pilot area is expected to expand.

"The triple play can no longer afford to be dragged on. This time the State Council's three-network integration working group has studied the second batch of pilot cities' plans to urge the first batch of 12 pilot cities to speed up the two-way entry process." July 13, Radio and TV The relevant person in the Science and Technology Department of the State Administration of Science and Technology told this reporter.

The reporter learned from the SARFT that the State Council's three-network integration team has divided three research teams into three pilot teams in the first batch of 12 pilot cities in May of the three-network integration pilot program. Actively, the working group decided to restart the selection of the second batch of pilot cities that had been postponed.

Sources told this reporter that “the first batch of pilot cities including Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, etc. have been actively competing for the second batch of qualifications, and from the feedback from the State Council’s Sanhe integration work group, The scope of the second batch of pilot cities will be expanded. In addition to the capital cities not listed in the first batch of cities, some non-capital cities with better conditions are also expected to be included. The specific list is expected to be announced before the end of this year."

It is worth noting that, apart from Wuhan, Hangzhou, and other provincial capital cities, the other finalists were non-capital cities with better economic conditions in the first batch of last year's list. This time, provincial capitals are more likely to be collectively short-listed.

Push forward

In May of this year, the triple play pilot project submitted by Beijing was the first to be approved, and subsequent triple-network convergence solutions were approved in several cities including Hangzhou, including IPTV, broadband network-based broadband and IP fixed-line services. In order to carry out large-scale pilot projects, it still needs the approval of the local communications bureau and the radio and television bureau.

On July 13th, the relevant person in the Bureau of Science and Technology of SARFT said that “the current two-way entry requirement for triple play has not really come to an end. Due to the entanglement of the departments, the speed of the two-way approval process is now very slow.”

According to the report submitted by the research team of the Tri-Network Integration Working Group in May this year, although the tri-network integration pilot work has achieved certain results, due to the inconsistent understanding of relevant documents of the State Council, the IPTV integrated broadcasting and control platform is docked with the transmission and distribution system and enters the two-way operation permit. Slow progress has been made in the issuance of permits, which has become the biggest obstacle to triple play trials.

According to the results of the investigation, the Office of the Sanwei Integration Working Group will instruct the telecommunications and radio and television administrations to apply for service licensing procedures for the triple play pilot companies as soon as possible, and issue cable television network-based Internet access, Internet data transmission value-added services, and domestic IP telephony services. Licensing and IPTV transmission, mobile TV distribution business license, to achieve two-way access to telecommunications, radio and television.

However, from the current perspective, radio and television and telecommunications still have great differences in terms of IPTV content broadcast and control platforms and international Internet exports. Therefore, the development of large-scale triple play services is still very difficult.

Under such circumstances, relevant experts of the Expert Group of the Tri-Network Integration Working Group proposed to restart the second batch of pilot cities that had stagnated as soon as possible in order to promote the two-way entry of the first batch of pilot cities.

In fact, under the efforts of the first batch of pilot governments and enterprises, the broadband upgrade of telecommunication networks was basically completed, and the digitalization and bidirectionalization of cable television networks were basically completed. At present, telecommunication and broadcasting companies in most regions have already had the ability to provide services to users. The bottleneck now is that Radio and Television Broadcasting's IPTV broadcast control platform has not yet docked with the transmission and distribution network of telecommunications. Radio and television operators and telecom operators have not obtained relevant operating qualifications. This bottleneck seems to be difficult to solve in the short term.

Wu Chunyong, a radio and television industry expert, stated that “in the absence of pilot business, it is not desirable to launch the second batch of pilot cities because the second batch of cities has no experience at all, but this may accelerate the pilot progress of the first batch of cities.”

Provincial program or win

Regarding the selection of the second batch of pilot cities, except for the popular cities of Tianjin, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Shenyang, almost all provincial capital cities are very active.

In fact, although it has not become the first batch of pilot cities, the triple play services in Tianjin and Chongqing have also begun to advance. The IPTV cooperation between Tianjin Unicom and Tianjin Broadcasting and Television has also entered the community.

In July last year, it was reported that the second batch of pilot cities will be introduced in the first half of this year. However, since the pilot projects submitted by the first batch of pilot cities were not approved until May of this year, the second list of pilot cities was postponed. During the two sessions this year, relevant responsible persons of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had stated that the pilot scope will not be expanded during the year.

However, for this expansion plan, the working group, as well as broadcasting and telecommunications, have different views. In addition to the provincial capital cities, some cities where the previous three networks have been integrated, such as Yunfu in Guangdong, Ezhou in Hubei, Zhangzhou in Shaanxi, Wuxi in Jiangsu, and Jiangsu Cities like Changzhou are also expected to enter the pilot list.

However, this reporter learned from the relevant experts of the Working Group on the Integration of the Three Networks that “the selection of pilot cities should consider comprehensive factors, but the provincial program seems to be more feasible because although the economic and cultural development levels of the provincial capital are quite different, the overall scope of the provincial pilots has entered the pilot area. There is no saying, but some non-capital cities with better conditions can also be considered."

It is clear that the launch of the second batch of pilot cities will also enter a crucial moment, and the competition among local governments will also be very fierce. However, relevant experts pointed out that “the triple play should not become a political show, and local governments are striving for pilot qualifications. The preparatory work should be done beforehand so as to avoid repeating the mistakes that could not be made in the first batch of pilot cities."

However, some experts pointed out that “the current 12 pilot cities have more than 46 million fixed-line subscribers, while cable TV users are close to 30 million, and the tens of millions of users have the conditions to pilot the triple play business. In fact, there is no need to expand capacity in the short term. ”