Zhang Weihua: Approaching“Wisdom City” Construction

Construction of wisdom city needsa lot of innovative talents as well as deep cooperation of informationtechnique and sorts of industries. We can achieve industry upgrading andefficiency improvement through informatization.

Reporter: Qiu Meifang

Reporter: Can Shanghaicitizens afford Shanghai as a “wisdom city”?

ZhangWeihua: Judging from optical network set for public, Shanghai Telecom haspushed 20M urban optical network business, which means that one only has to pay9 Yuan for each M each month. Such price is relatively in the world, and isalso lower than that of eight large cities such as Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, etc.

A tendency in communication industry isintegration which means whether it is able to integrate all businessestogether, and finally provide “package” service. Shanghai Telecom is now to dothat, and can provide “excellent” service for citizens at “preferential” cost.I believe that citizens do not want to have low-quality service even if it maycost less. Nowadays, we are using motorcycle at the price of bicycle, yet wecannot further hope to drive a GM car at the price of bicycle. We can see that “wisdomcity” construction can bring sustainable development.  

Reporter:Current applications of “wisdom city” such as IPTV, wisdom medicare are alltypical and model applications. What is your consideration and plan to wellbuild the comprehensive platform in order to make it really related to citizens’needs? How can you make this platform popular and welcome among people?

Reporter: Also, according toplan, schools and universities in Shanghai will be all covered by Wifi during “twelfthfive-year plan”, which means that Shanghai Telecom needs to cooperate with moreorganizations such as real estate runners, schools, hospitals, mobilefactories, etc., while in the past, Shanghai Telecom is more engaged in privatebusiness. What change will you make in management strategy? What function doyou want municipal committee and municipal government to play?

ZhangWeihua: Our management idea has undergone huge change these years. In the past,we wanted to do things all on our own throughout, yet nowadays, we have largeopenness. Take access network for example, Shanghai has set up a third partycompany for mutual construction and sharing. When fiber-optical is installed inhousehold, community will open access to every operator, which means that thefiber-optical is first installed, and it is up to residents to decide whetherthey use Unicom, China Mobile, or Telecom, and it is indeed a big change.

We are also open inresources and applications. We have set up urban optical network union bycombining video companies to provide services instead of depending on IPTValone. Actually, IPTV is also an open cooperation mode and union. In Shanghai,Shanghai Telecom has cooperated with SMG as early as 2006, and now we widen aswell as deepen our cooperation with SMG, Tudou, SNDA, etc., and we are alsoopen in “source” of business.

Therefore, we have been openin both “access” and “source”, which will produce a big influence as well as anexpected result which is diversity and further improvement of industry. 

We hope that municipal committee andmunicipal governmental departments can further encourage Shanghai enterprisesto improve informatization, and support Shanghai Telecom to provide informatizationplan for those enterprises.

Reporter: What expectation do youhave for construction of Shanghai as “wisdom city” in the future ten years?

Zhang Weihua: I think thatconstruction of wisdom city needs a lot of innovative talents as well as deepcooperation of information technique and sorts of industries. We can achieveindustry upgrading and efficiency improvement through push of informatization.Therefore, we need to train cross-type talents who are familiar with both theirown industry and information technique. Shanghai Telecom is willing to provideplatform for talents cultivation.

At the same time, construction of wisdom city should establish a  series of models as soon as possible in orderto promote popularization of such models in various fields. Shanghai Telecom iswilling to cooperate with related industry for model set-up.  

Through cooperation with other industries,we expect to achieve popularization of network and digital throughout internalworking, production chain coordination, marketing, customer service, etc. inall walks of life. Surely, every household can depend on WB and Wifi topractice on-line shopping, on-line study, on-line medical treatment, andon-line entertainment. In this way, Shanghai can be called a real wisdomcity. 

Reporter: Shanghai enjoys highestpopularity of WB as well as fiercest competition nationwide. ShanghaiCommunication Administration is going to carry out “package” WB popularity planwhich will tilt toward weaker operators. What do you think of this issue? Howcan Shanghai Telecom deal with pressure from competitors?

Zhang Weihua: First of all, weshould see that all operators share the same goal which is to make contributionto construction of wisdom city. Shanghai Telecom is main force of wisdom cityconstruction, and other operators have their own specialties and advantages,and they are also very important forces for wisdom city construction. Someoperators may break market orders and take some irrational action incompetition because of heavy pressure given by superiors, yet it is bad forconstruction of harmonious environment for wisdom city development, andtherefore, Such supervision departments as Shanghai CommunicationAdministration, Shanghai Municipal Economic and Informatization Commission,etc. begin to regulate industry competition, and reinforce coordination ofvarious problems emerging during competition.  

Reporter: In TransformationPractice Outline drew up by China Telecom Shanghai branch, a long-term goal isput forward that you plan to first achieve transformation in company, anddetailed guiding projects in transformation of network, business, servicemanagement etc. are also pointed out. How does the outline practice now? Whatchallenge may Shanghai Telecom face in the future?

Zhang Weihua: In 2005, ShanghaiTelecom actively echoed strategic goal of incorporation and published ShanghaiTelecom Transformation Practice Outline, putting forward the goal to transformfrom traditional fundamental network operator to modern comprehensiveinformation service provider. Judging from the effect, Shanghai branch has beenkeeping front row in transformation evaluation and appraisal ranking in ChinaTelecom corporate in the past few years, and has basically achieved thetransformation goal.     

In 2011, China Telecom put forward adevelopment goal of “new three roles” which are leader of intelligent pipeline,provider of comprehensive platform and participator of content and application.Intelligent pipeline enjoys high bandwidth, fixed and mobile networkintegration, customers’ free participation in configuration and management ofnetwork and grading on-demand guarantee of customers and services, etc.Comprehensive platform is a highly integrated and open platform that faces allbusinesses, serves all customers, carries full functions, and integratesmulti-abilities. Participation in content and application means to focus ondeveloping and self-operating convergent type content and application, andability type products such as payment and positioning, and to endeavor toachieve system and mechanism innovation to cultivate increase point for futureincome. Achievement of such deepening transformation is also the challenge weface in the futre. 

Introduction of Zhang Weihua