Three companies have been granted by the municipal government to operate the city's broadband network locally, the eastday.com reported today.
It's the first time that Shanghai has ever tried to turn a broadband or high-tech company into a broadband network operator. As an operator, the company will be able to construct their own intranet somewhere in the city, and after they have gone through a series of tests and trial programs, the intranet will be granted access to the city-wide network of the Shanghai Telecom.
In this way, the services and information will be shares by all the intranet users in a certain area.
The government said another nine companies are still pending regulatory approvals to become the network operators.
(eastday.com 09/12/2001)
