1. Introduction

2. Latest technological trends in China

China’s ICT environment has evolved considerably in recent years. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of 2012, the number of mobile phone users had grown to about 1.11 billion, while there were about 175 million broadband users. About 80% of mobile phone users have a 2G contract, so 3G service has not yet been widely accepted. However, commercial services for TD-LTE (time-division Long Term Evolution)-based 3.9G mobile phones are expected to be launched by the end of this year. The transition to broadband is also advancing rapidly; in 2012, the number of broadband users increased by about 25 million, and the number of FTTH (fiber to the home) ports also increased by about 36 million in one year, for a total of about 260 million ports provided.

The unique Chinese way of implementing instructions on directionality, which is conveyed through government policies, has played an important role in the evolution of China’s ICT. In China, the central government lays out its policies every five years, determining the areas in which industrial development will be focused on. The 12th Five-Year Guideline stipulates that the seven industrial fields to be focused on from 2011 to 2015 will be energy conservation and environmental protection, next-generation information technology (IT), biotechnology, production of cutting-edge equipment, new energies, new materials, and new-energy cars. The popularization of broadband is considered to be the focus in next-generation IT, and various measures to achieve this have been devised. In particular, national compulsory standard GB 50846-2012 (Code for design of communication engineering for FTTH in residential districts and residential buildings), enforced on April 1 of this year, stipulates in prefecture-level cities or larger (equivalent to Japanese cities) that offer FTTH, mandatory FTTH wiring for each household when new multi-unit apartments and residential buildings are constructed. The enforcement of this compulsory standard is expected to contribute to the further popularization of FTTH.

As mentioned above, the central government sets key industrial fields in its Five-Year Guideline, and macro-development plans to achieve those goals are also sequentially announced. In response to these development plans, ministries, agencies, and local governments have also set numerical targets to be achieved by the end of the period of the 12th five-year plan (the end of 2015) as well as numerous guidelines and plans for conceptual attained levels. An outline of the representative policies and the various types of developmental plans is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Examples of Chinese policies and development plans.

3. Standardization activities in China

The Beijing Representative Office is participating in the standardization activities carried out by the CCSA. The following is an explanation of standards in China. In accordance with the provisions of the Standardization Law of the People’s Republic of China (enforced in 1989), Chinese standards are divided into four categories: national standards, departmental standards (industry standards), local standards, and corporate standards (Fig. 4). Each of these standards is further divided into compulsory standards and optional standards (recommended standards). In standardization documents, compulsory national standards are indicated with GB followed by a number, while optional national standards are indicated as GB/T. Compulsory standards for the communication industry are identified with YD, while optional ones are shown as YD/T, thus allowing one to determine the role of each established standard based on its name. The categories of Chinese technological standards are listed in Table 1. It should be noted that the abbreviations here all indicate Chinese terms, so have not been defined.

Fig. 4. Categories of standards in the Chinese standardization system.

Table 1. Categories of technological standards.

The Beijing Representative Office is also participating in CCSA standardization efforts related to the Internet of Things (IoT). Mentioned as a national project in the 12th Five-Year Guideline, the IoT has been attracting considerable attention in China as a field of research and has generated significant activity including the establishment of university courses focusing on it. R&D of IoT and M2M (machine-to-machine) has also been progressing in Japan, and the possibility of applying it in the fields of power grids and transportation is being explored. However, China is characterized by the considerable expectations that are placed on investing in fields such as agriculture and ecology in addition to those above.

4. Latest business company trends

The NTT Group’s business companies are currently expanding their operations in China, and when minor investments are included, their activities involve over 40 offices with more than 10,000 employees. Notable press releases made recently by business companies are listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Main recent press releases.

5. Future developments and challenges

As described before, the NTT Group has maintained a relationship with China in a variety of ways for the past 30 years. The relationship initially started for the purpose of providing technological cooperation and support, but it has gradually evolved to become more business-oriented with the establishment of offices and subsidiaries. While recent reports suggest that China’s growth is slowing down, the growth rate is said to remain high, and demand in the field of ICT is expected to keep increasing. We aim to earn the trust and appreciation of the people in China and other Asian countries, and while making efforts to achieve this, we intend to put the NTT Group’s cutting-edge ICT technologies and know-how to use in managing our business, and to contribute to the development of Asian countries and the popularization of Japan’s ICT technology.

One issue that has been brought up is the improvement of the NTT brand name power within Asia. In Japan, NTT and the dynamic loop logo are well recognized; however, in Asia they are not necessarily recognized outside the circle of technicians. We will therefore work in the future to strengthen NTT’s brand name so as to ensure that each of our group companies can conduct their business smoothly.