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2003
6 May

New World Infrastructure Obtains Approval from the Radio, Film and Television Bureau of Fujian Province to Launch a Digital Service Platform on a Massive Scale

New World Infrastructure announces today that the PrediWave digital delivery technology they invested has achieved a remarkable breakthrough development in PRC. Beijing New World Digital Multi-Media Technology Ltd., a subsidiary of New World Infrastructure, has obtained the official permit from the Radio, Film and Television Bureau of Fujian Province to promote the Fujian Cable TV Network Digital Services Platform providing mainly T-Government multimedia information services by deploying PrediWave's Digital Delivery System (DDS). This will be the first broadband integrated channel providing all-round digital information and services via one-way cable network in China, even in the entire world, and that will be an important milestone of the 3-in-1 developments of computer, telephone, and television networks.

Douglas Chan Wing-Tak, the Managing Director of New World Infrastructure, stated that the cooperation of New World Infrastructure and the Radio, Film and Television Bureau of Fujian Province demonstrates an effective synergy of mutually complementary resources. More, the Radio, Film and Television Bureau of Fujian Province has also guaranteed that they will provide bandwidth equivalent to not less than 20 analog channels for the digital services.

The Digital Service Platform developed by PrediWave will provide a bunch of useful and popular services and "T-Government" will be the core module which comprises government enquiry, form submission, bill payment, tax payment, and urban services like news of province, cities and districts and emergency announcements; "Distant Learning" will provide diversified contents including academic education, professional training, language training, tuitions by famous tutors, talent development training, infant and family education and many other personal interest courses; "Banking Service" will provide news and information of stock market and transactions, and other T-banking services like bill payment, money transfer, ordering, etc.; "Medical and Healthcare" will provide healthcare information, medical institution information, appointment for medical examination and communication between medical institution via intranet. Together with other contents like daily life information, TV games, and entertainment programs such as professional channels, popular movies, hot TV series, sports competitions, music events, etc., PrediWave will provide users an all-round Family Digital Service Platform with powerful functions.

Zhang Hai Tao, the vice minister of State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), envisioned publicly in March that the number of digital service users in China will reach 30 millions by 2005. In fact, with the vigorous endeavor and policy of the China Government in promoting digital services, the Radio, Film and Television Bureau of Fujian Province supports the development of this Digital Service Platform with much confidence. According to the existing over 9 million families and in which of over 4 million cable TV users in the entire Fujian province, it is foreseeable that the number of users of this digital service platform will potentially grow to 1 million within the coming 2 years. Besides, New World Infrastructure guarantees the direct supply of 200,000 Family Digital Assistants (FDA) to the market on rental basis in the first phrase. Any cable TV users can enjoy different kind of all-round digital services, including "T-Government Platform", "Distant Learning Platform", "T-Banking Platform", medical and healthcare, TV games, and entertainment, via the Digital Service Platform by only paying deposit and a low-price monthly rental for the PrediWave Family Digital Assistant.

"Apart from Fujian Province, New World Infrastructure is having prospective discussion with the Radio, Film and Television Bureau of Guangzhou for similar agreement in near future. Meanwhile, having demonstrated the cable digital transmission technology and vision of PrediWave to several television broadcasting system operators in several provinces in China, and it is optimistic that successful procedures and agreements can be made in near future." said Douglas Chan, "When we come to agreements with other provinces, it is projected that PrediWave's services will reach the coverage of 20 million users in PRC possibly.

Douglas explained, "In order to support the development of 3-in-1 networks, PrediWave will soon launch, apart from the existing features, more new and powerful features, such as Interactive Video Text (IVT), Text Announcement Display(TAD), 36Mbps High Speed Broadband (Broadband 36), Voice Over IP (VoIP), Multi-Channel Recording, Multiplexing, Network Game, and Multi-Channel Reception with a Single Chip.

The approval of PrediWave's large-scale promotion in Fujian by the Radio, Film and Television Bureau of Fujian Province has demonstrated the consent and confidence of Chinese officials in PrediWave's technology and has also ensured the feasibility of the commercial operation model supported by PrediWave System. Douglas reinforced, "This breakthrough brings us a very important message that the endeavor of New World Infrastructure, under an effective operation model, in marketing the PrediWave's Digital Delivery System and Digital Service Platform will acquire positive return soon. With such explicit vision, we foresee to speed up the pace of business development in overseas and introduce PrediWave's Digital Service Platform to the whole world real soon."