The growth of broadband service on the mainland will exceed the global average over the next five years as the mainland catches up with Western countries, International Engineering Consortium Vice President Thomas Costello said.

Costello said the huge population and an abundance of progressive companies will be the key drivers for the growth.

"The business opportunities on the mainland are massive," he said. "The market basis there is relatively low compared with neighboring markets such as South Korea and Hong Kong."

Regarding two mainland fixed-line service providers, China Telecom and China Netcom, being awarded 3G licenses under the telecommunication restructuring, Costello hailed the reshuffle, saying it could deepen the broadband penetration rate.

He added that the broadband sector will continue to be a high source of income for the telecom players.

China Telecom's broadband service subscriptions grew 25.9 percent, to about 36 million users, in 2007, while the average revenue per user was up 32.9 percent.

In light of the furious market competition, Costello said there will be a global trend for collaborations between broadband service operators and content providers to keep their competitive edges.

He applauded many mainland and Hong Kong players that have made great headway in providing televised programs online.

For example, China Netcom is the official fixed-telecom partner of the Beijing Olympic and presents updates of the event via its broadband platform.

He added that: "PCCW in Hong Kong is very progressive in collaborating with many content providers such as Star TV and HBO".

The mainland appears to be a latecomer in the industry, given that broadband-related businesses began to boom in the mid-1990s in western countries such as the US.

But Costello said that the plus side of the overdue entry is that the mainland can directly tap into the latest broadband technologies such as WiMAX and HSPA.

"The beauty of the mainland is it doesn't have the old technologies that Europe and America do," he said.

(HK Edition 06/18/2008 page2)