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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Net neutrality in China

It is a hot topic in US about net neutrality. How about net neutrality in China? It is too early to talk about net neutrality in China.

First, the government in China has a great control about Internet access and content. It is common that applications such as Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter are not accessible to Chinese users; the famous Great Firewall of China does content filtering regularly.

Second, telecommunication companies in China are all state owned enterprises. They have a great say about accessibility. For example, in mobile domain, China Mobile dominates mobile market. Apple can not make a deal with China Mobile about iphone in China. Apple has a strong position in US while China Mobile has a strong position in China. China Telecoms want to control not only the communication pipeline, but also services built on infrastructure such as ringtone. They make the rule of network access and speed control.

There is little discussion about net neutrality (网络中立) in China.

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