Major Chinese telecom carriers are vying for potential opportunities in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, where the Internet penetration rate is low.
China Mobile appears to be the most active in exploring business in the Southeast Asian countries.
The country's largest State-owned wireless carrier opened three subsidiaries in the ASEAN region during 2015 alone, marking a fairly fast overseas expansion, Zhao Peng, business director of China Mobile International, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile, said during the 2nd China-ASEAN Information Harbor Forum on Monday.
The forum is part of the 13th China-ASEAN Expo and the 13th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, which are annually hosted by Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
In response to China's "One Belt and One Road" initiative, China Telecom said it had set up a branch in Myanmar this year.
ASEAN is also a focus region of China Unicom.
Cheng Xiaojun, general manager of the international network maintenance center of China Unicom, disclosed during the summit that the company, which already runs businesses in Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos, will extend into Thailand and Malaysia.
Thailand could be a promising market, as the Thai government has pledged to develop a "Digital Thailand" in the next five years.
The nation's broadband network coverage is expected to reach 95 percent by 2020, according to a document issued by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology of Thailand in 2014.
However, Tirayut Sakvilastrakul, executive vice president of CAT Telecom Public Co, told the Global Times on Monday that it is better for Chinese carriers to enter the Thai telecom market through partnership with local peers. CAT is 100 percent owned by the Ministry of -Finance of Thai.
Data from the International Telecommunication Union estimated that at present, 3.9 billion people, or 53 percent of the world's population, do not use the Internet, and in Asia and the Pacific, 58.1 percent of population has no access to the Internet.
"The insufficiency in international Internet connectivity in the ASEAN region is a major reason for the digital divide [with other developed countries and regions]," Mu Chunbo, an expert from the China Academy of Telecommunication Research under the Ministry of Information and Internet Technology (MIIT) said at the forum.
It is believed by the participants that the development of Internet access can reflect the development level of a country.
China's three carriers have showed great ambitions to expand their businesses into the ASEAN region. But there are also challenges ahead.
Dong Ziyu, vice president of China Telecom Global, wholly owned by China Telecom, complained about the high costs of building cables in the ASEAN region.
"For instance, the undersea Internet cables cannot connect with landlocked Laos unless such cable go through other countries, which is costly," said Dong at the forum, calling for support from ASEAN governments.
Zhao from China Mobile also thinks there are policies in some countries in Southeast Asia restricting telecom carriers' fast development.
Authorities in Vietnam set fixed minimum tariffs for telecom services, making it impossible for telecom carriers to launch distinctive products to woo local customers, said Zhao.
How to efficiently operate a network built in the ASEAN region is also widely perceived as a major task every telecom player needs to complete.
Wen Ku, director general with the Department of -Communications Development of MIIT, emphasized the important role that the China-ASEAN Information Harbor Forum will continue to play in the Internet network construction of the ASEAN region.
Following the proposal of setting up China-ASEAN Information Harbor in 2014, 16 terrestrial cross-border cable lines have been built between the ASEAN region and China, said Wen.
