(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
|
|
| Cisco Systems to Build China's First Internet Exchange
|
|
November 24, 1998 (HONG KONG) -- Cisco Systems Inc. of the United States
signed a joint-venture agreement with the Beijing City Information Office
and China Information Highway Corp. to construct the Capital Public
Information Platform (CPIP), China's first Internet exchange.
|
According to Bill Nuti, president of Cisco's Greater Asia group, the
networking company is responsible for the design of the entire network
architecture. It also will provide a wide range of hardware and software
as well as technical training and support.
The CPIP will be operated over fiber-optic cables owned by the Bureau
of Radio, Film & Television (BRFT) and connect to the bureau's planned
ATM backbone network.
It will be operated by Beijing Information Development Co., Ltd., a venture
encompassing the Ministry of Information Industry, the People's Government
of Beijing City and the People's Bank of China.
It will link the largely separate networks that comprise China's Internet.
These networks are the Ministry of Information Industry's ChinaNet, Jitong
Corp.'s Golden Bridge Network (GBNet), the China Education and Research
Network (CERNET), the China Science and Technology Network (CSTNet)
and the China Financial Network (CFN).
Prior to March 1997, these Chinese networks had no interconnectivity.
All Internet traffic had to be routed via the United States.
Limited connectivity exists between the networks via low bandwidth leased-line
connections that are now saturated.
The number of Internet users in China has more than doubled from 500,000
in January to 1.175 million at the end of June. Thus the development
of the CPIP is believed to be an essential step forward in enabling
seamless communications across China's Internet.
Also, the CPIP will act as a channel for communications with government.
It will enable the national government and Beijing city administration
to provide the public with service-related information.
(Eleanor Yeung, Asia BizTech Hong Kong Editor)
<Visit News Center for more Asian news.>
|
|
|
