Song Junde

internet - Merger of three networks in five year - prof

Sometimes you see announcements coming from the central government that make perfectly sense, but where you would still need a 'wait-and-see' attitude. Even the writer of this Xinhua dispatch was not 100 percent sure when he or she noted the announcement of professor Song Junde that China would merge internet, telecom and broadcasting networks within the next five years.
Song Junde is professor at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunication, so certainly in a position to know about those plans.
But the regulating bodies in charge of those three networks will not just happily merge: that will be a major struggle, only comparable with the split of China Telecom by former prime minister Zhu Rongji. Such a move will imply a major powerstruggle and I will certainly talk to some of my experts to see what their feeling is.