With an aim to achieve its goal to cover 200 million NGB (Next Generation Broadcasting) users within 10 years, the Department of Science and Technology under China's SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television) recently revealed that it will invest a total of US$100 billion to establish a nationwide NGB network, a broadcasting network based on digital cable TV and mobile broadcasting technology, the Sina News reported on October 25. In August, the SARFT said that it would consolidate all the Chinese radio and television network into a single national cable TV network company. Should the plan go as planned, this new company will have chance to becoming the fourth largest telecom operator in China, following China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.

In mid-October, Oriental Cable Network completed the establishment of a NGB network serving 500,000 users in Shanghai's Jiading, Changning, Xuhui districts and Pudong New Area. In the collaboration with Shanghai Interactive Television company, Oriental Cable Network formally launched its NGB interactive on-demand services, which is capable of achieving a maximum downlink speed of 40Mbps and is expected to further reach 100 Mbps later. In addition to the previous eight demonstration networks set up as of July 2009 (Guangzhou and Haikou were excluded), the SARFT stated that the NGB demonstration networks are expected to be set up in 12 cities in total by year-end 2010, according to the same source.