The long-awaited telecommunications law is unlikely to be submitted for voting at the National People's Congress (NPC), which will open next month, industry sources said.

"There is a slim chance the telecommunications law will be passed this year," said an official with the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), who was involved in drafting the law.

The telecommunications law has been at the draft stage for over 20 years. The MII submitted a final version to the State Council for evaluation in 2004. And last year the standing committee of the NPC listed the telecommunications law as one of its top priorities, buoying hopes it will be passed soon.

According to China's legislation process, a draft law must be evaluated by the standing committee three times before it can be submitted to the NPC for voting.

"So far, the draft has yet to be put on the table of the NPC standing committee," said the MII official, who did not wish to be named.

As the standing committee evaluation usually takes about six months, the draft telecommunications law will not be discussed at this year's NPC, the source said.

Disagreements on the regulatory framework of the increasingly converged information industry have stalled the legislation process, the MII official said. "Telecom and broadcasting authorities have yet to reach a consensus on how to regulate the industries."

The fast-growing telecommunications, Internet and broadcast networks and the emergence of new technologies and services such as broadcasting via Internet and mobile phone networks have largely blurred boundaries within the industry.

A regulation issued by the State Council in 1999 prohibits telecom operators and broadcasters from entering each other's turf. That means in China a telecom operator is not allowed to offer broadcasting services, while a broadcaster cannot provide telephone and Internet access services.

In recent years deregulation has enabled some cable TV service operators to offer Internet access via cable. Some telecom operators have been awarded licenses to offer broadcasting services via the Internet.

"But the contraction of interests of the telecom and broadcast industries is still hampering full deregulation," the MII official said.

Competition peaked in 2005 when local broadcasting regulators in Quanzhou, a city in East China's Fujian Province, ordered China Telecom and Shanghai Media Group (SMG) to cease a trial of IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) services, although SMG had already secured an IPTV license.

Industry observers said broadcast regulators halted the IPTV trial because they wanted to promote digital TV services.

"Operators of broadcast and telecom networks as well as regulators need to collaborate at a time when different networks are becoming increasingly converged," said Yang Peifang, a research fellow with the China Academy of Telecom Research affiliated with the MII.

(China Daily February 28, 2007)