A Strategic Analysis On Development Of The Fixed-telephone Network In China

The fixed-line telephone network in China is the largest telecommunication network in the world in users' scale. Its traditional leadership in the market has already been replaced by the cellular telephone. Its prospect of existence and development in the future not only concerns the vital interests of mass users, but also concerns the overall situation of the national telecommunication network in strategic orientation and security. In this article, the well-known SWOT method is used to make strategic analysis on development of the fixed-line telephone network in China.Firstly we should realize that the inherent advantages of the fixed-line telephone network in China support and guarantee its development. The most important advantage lies in its huge amount of user resources. By strengthening business innovation the potential income from users can be excavated constantly. Also, the fixed-line telephone network should pay attention to utilize its unique technological advantages, including security, monopoly and bandwidth advantages. That is the fundamental guarantee for its foothold in the market. Another advantage of the fixed-line telephone network is on cost, namely low price of terminals, which is the crucial condition for it to bear the important task of extending general service.The weaknesses of the fixed-line telephone network are represented in three aspects: the users' structure, technological defect, cost and expenses. The weakness on users' structure comes from the large percentage of users with low income such as home telephones and rural telephones. The weakness on technological defect causes the low level of ROI and network resource utilization of the fixed-line telephone. The cost and expenses weakness is mainly caused by the large amount of investment cost and maintenance expenses on the access network. These weaknesses greatly influence the fixed-line telephone network on promotion of its market competitive power.The development opportunity of the fixed-line telephone network bases on constant progresses of the nation and society, including the establishment of the new development guideline and evolvement of the society informationization. In addition,the fixed-line telephone network should grasp the opportunity of band broadening and mobilization to realize network upgrade and complete business operation.The main threat that the fixed-line telephone network faces is the substituting competition from the cellular telephone. Additionally the threats of the substituting competition from Internet and the potential competition from cable TV and electric communication are not so urgent. By developing multi-operation on mobile and data communication businesses, the fixed-line telephone network can relax the above competition pressure to a certain extent. Moreover the fixed-line telephone network should pay close attention to policy risks in the course of development, including risks from support policy on telecommunication general service and policy limits on wireless access.According to the analysis results of this article, the conclusion is to attach enough importance and support to the development of the fixed-line telephone network. This is necessary under the special situation in China. Above all, the strategic guideline should be strengthened to change the growth mode. Then an important strategy of access network optimization should be adopted to increase the utilization level of the network resource, reduce the maintenance expenses and notably improve the service quality. The fixed-line telephone network can fully serve round its advantage and make greater contribution to the national economy and society.