Tiantian Online, a joint venture between China Netcom and foreign investors, has been awarded a landmark license to transmit television content over its broadband network. The award comes after two years of heavy investment in to network infrastructure to accommodate high-speed connections.

 

Broadband services are currently estimated to account for less than 5% of the operator's revenue, yet China Netcom plans add five million broadband subscribers in 2004, near two-fold growth from the 2.7 million at the end of November 2003.

 

China Netcom's chief rival, China Telecom, has not yet received the license. Whether China's largest operator has applied for the license remains unconfirmed.