In 1978, Deng Xiaoping took China on a new, open economic direction with a “Reform and Opening up” policy. With this, China embarked on an ambitious economic path. As a result of these reforms, China increased its active participation in numerous global trade and economic organisations and has positioned itself as a leader in trade and international cooperation. China has experienced tremendous economic growth and is the world’s largest trading nation, a manufacturing hub and the second largest nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

China is a vital procurement market for many companies worldwide. Today, China is the European Union’s most important trading partner. In 2020, €586bn worth of goods were traded between China and the European Union. This represented 16% of total EU trade in goods.

As an attractive sales market, European companies benefit from the high reputation their business’s goods have within China. Economic cooperation with Chinese companies is a vital part of the strategy of international business. For many European companies however, the Chinese market remains an enigma. It is a complex market that requires an in-depth knowledge of different regulations and culture in order to break through successfully.

Every company and entrepreneur must garner a comprehensive understanding of the market. In addition to conducting an analysis on the overall economic realities, competition and possible business partners, they must also pay close attention to the legal, tax, customers and export control frameworks that are essential knowledge for any business operating in China.

According to a survey by the German Chamber of Commerce in China, hurdles include internet connectivity issues, a lack of skilled employees, protectionist barriers and a lack of legal certainty.

When entering the Chinese market, it is important to consider how to deal with critical issues such as protecting your intellectual property, understanding the payment practises, maintaining quality assurance and dealing with corruption.

European companies that have opened branch offices in China, or still have plans to do so, often face the same challenges. Employees based in China need access to the data from their European headquarters, but at the same time they must ensure that sensitive corporate data remains protected.

The internet in China has different regulations, many applications and websites are inaccessible or only work to an extent. This includes applications that are vital to most European companies’ internal communications, such as Office 365 and Microsoft Teams. This challenge, especially in an era of increased digitalisation, hampers the efficiency of communication and doing business.

Many companies seek to resolve these issues, especially large international operators who want to help their customers expand internationally. China Telecom (Europe) stands out as a major player, with its comprehensive understanding of both the China and APAC market.

For companies that want to grow their business or establish a presence in China or the APAC region, or for Chinese enterprises that wish to expand overseas, CTE provides an integrated telecoms and communication service solution.

CTE is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Telecom Global (CTG), the international arm of China Telecom. CTE’s unrivalled knowledge of the Chinese market and regional offices distributed across Europe make CTE an ideal partner for European and Asian businesses. This includes European multinational enterprises, Chinese enterprises in Europe, carriers, telecom service providers and Europe-based Chinese consumers.

CTE seamlessly connects European businesses to the China and APAC region, our European-Asia backbone network has more terrestrial and submarine cable routes than any of our competitors.

Domestically, China Telecom owns the largest digital network in mainland China. This vast infrastructure network results in a superior low latency, greater diversity and improved resilience when accessing business applications to and from China.

Bringing all of your international communication needs under one global contract, CTE simplifies your business operations to allow businesses to dedicate more time to their customers and generate revenue. CTE provides a peace of mind that only comes from knowing you’re in the safe hands of industry experts.

China has the world’s second largest economy when measured by nominal GDP and is forecasted to be the largest economy within a few decades. Growth rates have averaged 10% over the last 30 years since the reform and opening up programme was initiated. China is also in the leading position as the world’s largest manufacturing economy and the world’s largest exporter.

Since the 1980’s, foreign direct investment into China has surged, especially in ‘Special Economic Zones’ established in 1980, with further zones being established to encourage free trade and movement of capital. With this opening up, China has seen vast amounts of foreign investment and major global brands establishing a significant market presence in China to tap into the vast consumer base. These economic zones, amongst other reforms in China, have seen a marked decrease in the national poverty rate and surge in incomes and consumer spending.

In order to gain a foothold in a market as vast and complex as China, a business needs to have a comprehensive understanding of the business landscape, consumer profiles, marketing channels and culture. A business should only operate in an environment that benefits your business and should be prepared for great flexibility in the China and APAC market.

Summarised, entering the Chinese market is a complex task. A business must first study the history and trends of the Chinese market, how it reformed and what direction it is taking. It should look into what the consumers are currently demanding and what demand is rapidly growing. Competition is fierce and there are factors at work that require an expert voice.

It may be unsurprising to hear that the culture and methods of doing business in China is considerably different to that in western countries. There are a myriad of books and research on this very topic, designed to help businesses and expatriates unravel the complexities of Chinese business culture. Significant amounts of these cultural practises are not unique to China, they also apply to other east Asian nations, albeit referred to by different terms with minor differences in places.

Guanxi 关系 – The defining factor of Chinese business relationships

The word ‘Guanxi’ is best translated as ‘relationships’ however no translation can fully understand this complex term that is central to Chinese culture. In business ‘Guanxi’ means the strength of one’s network and connections. An individual with significant ‘Guanxi’ will be able to open more doors in the Chinese market. As any business knows, relationships with business partners, suppliers and employees are crucial to the success of your business.

Relying on connections to get business processes such as contracts moving is normal practice in China. Building and maintaining these connections helps to minimise delays and understand issues that may be delaying progress. A business or individual entrepreneur requires a strong knowledge of Chinese culture and etiquette to succeed. An alternative is to find a partner that already knows the local framework and culture and can act as a guide throughout the process of doing business in the market.

Business Cards, a staple of Asian business

In most of Asia including China, Korea and Japan, business cards are exchanged during the first meeting, be it formal or informal.

It is generally polite to accept the business cards with both hands and to study it carefully. One should avoid taking the card and hastily placing it into your back pocket without reading it – as this can be viewed as an insult on the opposing party's position and status. Your own business card should not be bent or damaged when presented. The cards should not be distributed to those present as if you were playing cards, nor should they be stacked with the request that everyone helps themselves.

The format of business cards differs from country to country. Take note that in many countries in Asia, people will be known as their surname and not their first name. It is polite to address clients by their family names and full titles until specifically invited by the host or colleagues to use their given names.

Over the past 40 years, China and the Asia-Pacific region has developed into a global hub for finance, manufacturing and technology. According to Forbes Fortune 500 data, 5 of the top 10 technology companies are based in Asia.

China’s telecom sector has grown rapidly and the number of mobile and fixed users has increased substantially. In the domestic market, the major telecom operators are at present prioritising the construction of the world’s largest 5G network.

China Telecom has established vendor relationships all over the world, using the vendor of best fit depending on the region and customer requirements. Utilising a strong global infrastructure network, it provides world class connectivity and bespoke packages. China Telecom has the largest fixed-line network that covers both the north and the south.

The ecosystem in China is quite different to the European market. The Chinese market is dominated by technical giants such as Tencent, which is behind the messaging service Wechat, responsible for Wechat pay. Alipay is also prominent in this market and is making significant inroads to the rest of Asia as an alternative to Google and Apple pay systems. In China, major technology vendors such as Huawei and ZTE are revolutionising 5G technology and spending vast sums of money on AI and machine learning technology.

South Korea is home to Asia’s largest technology company, Samsung. Whilst they are best known for their handsets, Samsung also pours vast sums of money into R&D, reaching a record high of $18.6bn in 2020. Samsung research focus areas include cybersecurity solutions, IoT and 5G.

The Japanese technology sector is still dominated by the familiar players Sony, Hitachi and Panasonic. Sony is a giant in the gaming hardware and distribution business, reporting a huge revenue increase during the pandemic as consumers looked for activities at home.

In the Indian market, IT companies continue to lead the way in contributing to economic activity. Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) continues to provide some of the world’s best-trained consultants in over 50 countries worldwide and is the largest software company in India.

China is a country where the state maintains a significant control over economic activity. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) was founded in 2008 and is responsible for the regulation and development of the telecommunications industry in China.

Permits and provisions for internet services, cloud and cross-border networking

China implements a permit system for telecoms business, telecom operators who run services in China are required to obtain a basic telecoms business permit, while value-added telecoms (VAT) operators who provide VAT services are required to obtain a VAT business permit.

Data Protection in China

Europe is not the only part of the world with complex rules when it comes to cyber security law and data protection laws, with the consequences of non-compliance being equally severe.

The Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC), the MIIT and the Ministry of Public Security are the primary regulatory authorities in charge of cyber security administration. Summarised, there are three categories of data which are mandatory to be stored in China.

Critical information Infrastructure (CII)

Referring to information infrastructure across important industries such as public communications, energy, transport, finance or any other critical infrastructure that once damaged or compromised can threaten the public interest.

When CII data must be provided abroad, a security assessment must be conducted.

Data Collected and/or Processed by Level 3 or above System under the MLPS

Data as titled are normally required to be stored within China. MLPS here means multi-level protection scheme, a graded protection system for cybersecurity to protect and supervise the system that is constituted by computers or other information terminals to collect, save, transmit and process information by grade.

Special Data

In China, some special data is required to be stored locally. For example, party or government data collected and/or processed by cloud service providers (financial information, credit history, population data, internet map data, car hailing data, data processed by online publication service providers).

Cross-Border Data Transfers

Under the ‘PRC Cyber Security Law’, any personal information or important data collected or generated by CCI operators in China must be stored in China.

Generally, for personal information, the network operator should obtain the consent of the person and undergo a security assessment for cross-border transfer. In addition, there would need to be a data processing agreement between the domestic data collector and the overseas data processor.

China Telecom Global Internet Services provide a wide range of Internet services to fulfil the different requirements of different business needs.

ChinaNet (AS 4134) network is providing worldwide telecom operators and OTT with direct access to China’s vast Internet resources. It includes 2.3 million websites managed by ChinaNet. It is built in a highly redundant and large capacity architecture with Tier 1 carrier standard. The underneath network is riding on multiple and diverse terrestrial and subsea cables.

ChinaNet Paid-Peer service is provided through ChinaNet (AS 4134) network and it offers the shortest and direct route to ChinaNet network in China by one-stop access.

China Access is another service provided through ChinaNet (AS 4134) network. It offers customers cost-effective internet resources to reach China Internet resources, not only in China Telecom network.

CTGNet (AS 23764) is built in purpose to provide customers with a highly stable and good Internet network performance. It is linked to ChinaNet, CN2 and most of the major ISPs locally or globally.

Global Internet Access (GIA) service on CTGNet (AS 23764) provides premium Internet access between mainland China and other countries.

Global Transit is another service on CTGNet (AS 23764) that provides customers with access to the global internet resources.

We offer BGP community in GIA and Global Transit services for customers to better control the Internet routes announcement and route selection.

CN2 (AS 4808) is providing a premium Internet service in China for enterprise customers. It is also one of the major network partners with CTGNet (AS 23764) in China.

Why choose China Telecom for Global Internet Services?

China Telecom, as an incumbent Internet Service Provider in China, has more than 300 PoPs including all China’s cities and major cities worldwide, with extensive global network coverage and a very strong user base in mainland China. We are the China specialists, with the experience, knowledge and infrastructure to help your ventures succeed in China. All of our services are fully compliant with the stringent requirements of Chinese cyber security laws.

China Telecom Global Internet network is built in high redundancy and high flexibility network architecture that provides stable network performance, and connects China Telecom Global Internet network with the shortest route and low latency.

Billing: We offer customers flexible billing in both fixed bandwidth charging mode and burst traffic charging mode.

Port bandwidth: We have a wide range of bandwidth ports available, ranging from 10M to 100G, depending on various products, for customer connection.

Anti-DDOS: We provide Anti-DDOS service for customers running BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) with us. It can effectively mitigate cyberattack and ensure the operation of customer businesses as normal.

Secure and reliable: Benefit from industry leading SLAs and a 24/7 proactive network with highly qualified engineers managing and monitoring performance to give peace of mind.

China Telecom SD-WAN Ecosystem is based on China Telecom global SD-WAN backbone and edge cloud node infrastructure, end-point could get access to our SD-WAN platform via hardware SD-WAN box, virtual SD-WAN VNF, mobile VPN client or partner network. End-point could utilise any kind of underlay service like internet, EPL (Ethernet private link), MPLS VPN or even 4G/5G. We provide an SD-WAN brand-neutral solution, which supports Versa, Cisco Viptela, Fortinet, SilverPeak, etc.

China Telecom take on the whole process of planning, designing, installing, maintaining and supporting the solutions for the entire life cycle. We strive to stay small enough to be able to offer customised, practical and efficient SD-WAN solutions, but large enough to command the latest and best thinking in SD-WAN provision.

Through the China Telecom Ecosystem, you can benefit from cloud exchange service for multi-cloud direct connection at many regions, you can also benefit from SaaS acceleration at any cloud node. In addition, you can also access China Telecom IoT platform, global IDC ring colocation resources and edge cloud computing service.

Why choose China Telecom for SD-WAN?

China Telecom’s solution is in full compliance with Chinese Government laws and regulations for cross-border VPN communications. We have a full international operating license to provide all services originating from China in the solution scope.

China Telecom’s SD-WAN expert team is familiar with world top-tier SD-WAN solutions and also have rich experience of SD-WAN design, implementation and troubleshooting. Many of the expert team have acquired expert-level certification of Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper, VMWare-VeloCloud, etc.

China Telecom SD-WAN service provides global warehouse and engineer resources which cover installation, onsite service all around the world.

Many of our carrier and enterprise customers need a private network for China, and our suite of fully managed Ethernet-based network services are developed specifically to meet your demands for performance, speed and security.

IEPL lets you choose dedicated, point-to-point or point-to-multi-point international connectivity both through China Telecom’s own POPs and through services offered with our carrier partners around the world. The service offers high flexibility and security for easy LAN extension, WAN connection and high bandwidth or high traffic volume applications.

China Telecom IEPL adopts Ethernet over SDH technology to provide customers with long-distance/ transnational Ethernet Private Line service with access rates between 2M and 10G, and allows point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communication.

In summary, IEPL provide the following features:

• Flexible bandwidth, Access rates between 2 Mbps and 100 Gbps
• Guaranteed security and speed
• Fully-managed, international Ethernet based network and bandwidth service
• Global connectivity from our network of over 33 Submarine cables and terrestrial links

Why is IEPL so important to an international company?

IEPL is a dedicated line with fixed-bandwidth connection between two locations that is reserved at all times for use by one subscriber, typically a business.

IEPL have better Service Level Agreements and faster fix times than other connectivity solutions.

Why choose China Telecom for IEPL?

With China Telecom Europe’s IEPL you get:

• Global connectivity from our network of over 33 Submarine cables and high-speed terrestrial links with a total international transmission capacity of 840T, covering 72 countries and regions.
• Fully-managed, international Ethernet based network and bandwidth services
• An end-to-end China private connectivity service based on our next generation SDH/OTN Multi Service Transport Platform
• Low latency and high reliability
• Flexible adjustment of bandwidth from 2M to 100 Gbps according to actual requirements
• Mean time to repair ≤4 hours
• Cost effectiveness
• Standard and widely applicable Ethernet interface, without new equipment investment, ensuring simple network upgrading and short delivery time

Global ICT Services (ICT)

Supported by a vast team of experienced, certified engineers, China Telecom Europe provides Global ICT services to a variety of businesses. China Telecom has relationships with a broad selection of tier-1 hardware and software vendors to provide a vast array of customer infrastructure requirements. By becoming involved at the earliest possible stage of the project, China Telecom ensures that only the best suited hardware and software is deployed that suits customer business development.

Intelligent Building Systems (IBS): China Telecom integrates communication and information technology to provide automated management for a variety of buildings such as commercial buildings, hotels, factories and business parks. These services include security automation systems, office automation and communication tools.

Data Centre engineering: Using the latest technology to maximise efficiency, using hardware and software from tier-1 vendors. This helps a business to reduce operational costs, energy consumption and improve the overall efficiency of data operations.

IT Service outsourcing: With a rich experience in operation carrier class service networks, as well as our globally distributed technical support centres and local service teams, China Telecom provides services that range from IT equipment maintenance, network maintenance and operation services.

DICT Solution: Practical examples of smart building solutions

Why choose China Telecom for Global ICT services?

China Telecom provides professional ICT services, with expert engineers being reachable from any corner of the globe. With a rich experience in consultation, planning, design, deployment and further optimisations, China Telecom provides customers with a tailored IT infrastructure.

China Telecom has a global operating presence and gets involved with the customer starting from the pre-design phase, to fully understand and guide a business. China Telecom has established relationships with a broad range of tier-1 hardware and software vendors and will ensure the supplier of best fit is used. After the deployment, global customer support agents that are available 24/7 will provide multilingual support to troubleshoot any further issues.

Global voice solutions are made up of several technologies with the primary purpose of maximising the efficiency and lowering the cost of communication, either internally or with the end customers of a business.

How do you ensure your employees can communicate across regions, without network issues and spiralling costs?

Cloud Contact Centre: A cloud contact centre is at the core of any business and provides the direct link between the business to its customers. As in the name, it is a cloud-hosted service that allows call agents to work from anywhere. It is suitable for organisations that require sophisticated call routing, agent management and analytics.

The software allows for a business to communicate with customers of multiple channels, including SMS and via a desktop client. Cloud migration enables significant cost savings, with a pay as you grow model that integrates with the rest of a business seamlessly.

A2P (Application to person) Messaging service: This service provides a fast, secure, personalised message to customers. It sends relevant messages to customers for the purposes of boosting conversion rates, engagement and brand image. It can be set up without specialist support China telecom A2P SMS supports different interconnection methods via a simple user interface.

SIP Trunk Service: Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a method of sending voice and other communications over the internet. It works with IP-enabled PBX and replaces traditional telephone lines. China Telecom supports by connecting a business’s existing PBXs to one another, as well as the outside world. With an IP connection and on China Telecom’s soft switch network, a business can communicate internally and externally simply by dialling a prefix number. Voice quality is excellent relying on China Telecom’s infrastructure backbone, it also has no hardware costs which means calling costs are markedly cheaper. China Telecom SIP trunk service has global coverage over 100 countries.

International 4008: If an enterprise is located in China or outside of China and wants to allow Chinese callers to reach them without being charged, then toll-free numbers are an obvious choice. China Telecom’s high performance intelligence voice network provides an international 4008 number for toll-free access.

Why choose China Telecom for Global Voice Solutions?

China Telecom is fully compliant with GDPR and other data protection regulations. China Telecom’s global voice solutions are tailor made, with a choice of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud setup. With a global network of terrestrial and submarine cables, customers can expect high quality calls with low latency.

China Telecom has an extensive network of Internet Data Centres that are distributed amongst key business centres across the globe, including a recently-expanded data centre facility in Frankfurt. Customers benefit by having access to the best infrastructure and services wherever they operate, as China Telecom provides a platform for growth in their key markets.

China Telecom IDCs are carrier-neutral and are equipped with business-ready infrastructure that keeps customers connected. These advanced IDCs also protect customers’ mission critical data assets. Providing end-to-end solutions, industry expertise and a qualified, multilingual customer support team, this package works to enable customers with a world-class network and data centre infrastructure.

Serving a diverse range of customers including Finance, IT services, digital media and more, high capacity transmission and connectivity across IDCs is made possible through China Telecom low-latency private lines, OTN, MPLS-VPN and high-speed internet connections.

Key benefits and features:

• Carrier and Cloud neutral ecosystem
• Highly efficient and reconfigurable power and cooling distribution
• 24/7/365 full security controls
• Approved according to international standards, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, ISO 50001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications.
• Multilingual customer support services
• Round-the-clock network operation, monitoring and maintenance
• Firewalls, intrusion detection, DDoS defence

One Stop Solution:

All of a business’s international communications can go under one global contract with China Telecom Europe. IDC services can be combined with Cloud, Network, Security and other connectivity services between Europe and the China-APAC region.

Cloud migration Services

Most businesses are planning to or already have moved to the cloud. Traditional ICT Infrastructure is burdened with a number of issues including security risks, lack of scalability and cost pressures.

China Telecom has an experienced team that are certified to work across a multitude of cloud platforms, including Alicloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure and many more. Utilising this experienced team, businesses can rest assured that their transition to the cloud will be stable and well-managed.

Acting as a one stop shop, China Telecom supports the cloud migration process by providing:

• Consultation Services: Providing expert consultation to ensure movement to the cloud in the most efficient manner possible
• Migration analysis: Once a business provides their existing infrastructure arrangement, China Telecom conducts an end to end analysis to fully understand the TCO, as well as help the business understand all the benefits of cloud migration.
• Migration Services: China Telecom expert engineers are fully certified to work across multiple vendors’ software, including VmWare and Alicloud.
• Managed services: China Telecom provides 24/7 hotline support with monitoring services for public cloud infrastructure and security tools.

Cloud Storage

China telecom provides a flexible, stable and reliable cloud storage service solution. Cloud storage services include object, block and file storage. In addition to standard IaaS cloud services, differing industry solutions are customisable according to customer requirements, including mail server solutions, private cloud and maintenance management services.

From the security side, network traffic is encrypted to avoid unwelcome intrusion. Concurrently, the robust infrastructure network that China Telecom provides allows for industry-leading SLA standards.

Cloud Exchange

Cloud exchange is a software layer that interconnects people, enterprises and cloud service providers.

China Telecom’s Cloud exchange is one of the world’s leading public cloud platforms, providing customers with a reliable and safe private cloud connection service. Via cloud switching channels and a global network coverage, customers are able to get multi-point connections and networking through branches, data centres and public cloud platforms. This allows them to make full use of cloud computing, enhance enterprise innovation capabilities and cut costs.

Why partner with China Telecom (Europe) for Cloud Solutions?

As mentioned, China Telecom has an experienced team that allows for seamless cloud customisation. CTE packages seamlessly integrate with other provided solutions, such as SD-WAN and MPLS.

What is a CDN?

A CDN is the lesser known backbone that is responsible for online content delivery.

Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are being utilised by a variety of businesses globally and their use is growing exponentially. CDN is a group of services which are geographically distributed to allow for the quick delivery of internet content.

CDNs store a cached version of website content in POP (point of presence) sites, these POPs will be delivering the content closest to the user with a caching server. CDNs can deliver a rich variety of content, including audio, software, 4k video and games. CDNs have existed for decades to support businesses to provide online content.

A CDN can also make a business more secure. As it is deployed on the edge of a network, it makes it ideal for blocking DDoS attacks as they will be mitigated outside of the core network infrastructure of a business.

In summary, CDNs can help to:

• Improve the loading speed of pages
• Reduce bandwidth consumption
• Provide enhanced security and protection your websites from DDoS attacks
• Effectively manage higher traffic loads

Do I need a CDN to operate in China?

If your business is experiencing issues with latency in the Chinese market despite having a strong website host, the issue is most likely to be caused by your lack of a CDN. Infrastructure in China is supported by a strong infrastructure backbone, however, geographical distances are still a factor. If your business operates out of Europe, the distances between your servers and end-users based in China will still impact your services from emails to browsing. A CDN based in China can help increase your speeds significantly. As complying with local rules and regulations in China is a complex and timely process, it is imperative that your business has a partner with a comprehensive understanding of the Chinese market to avoid any compliance issues.

What type of business benefits from CDN?

Any business that delivers content online will benefit from being served by a CDN. Their usage continues to trend upwards rapidly each year – if a business has any online elements, there are very few reasons not to use a CDN unless you are running a strictly localised website.

Why choose China Telecom for CDN?

We offer storage, caching and download, streaming, reporting and security services required to act as your one-stop shop, simplifying your billing processes. Our rich experience operating across regions, in particular to the China and APAC region, make China Telecom an obvious partner for CDN.

Solution architecture

Use Cases: CDN

Many businesses struggle with content loading times, especially when Chinese users are trying to access European-based servers. Without using a CDN, the user’s data must cover the vast distance of Eurasia and back, which is a particular strain on content-heavy websites.

A variety of industries have benefited from using China Telecom CDN services.

• A European based retail company was having issues with their website's imagery, which was not easily accessible for China-based users. By using China Telecom’s CDN services, they were able to increase loading times to be 15 times faster. In addition, the availability rate increased from 51% to 99.96%.
• A content publisher produced vast quantities of cartoon images and e-books, with an audience based primarily in China. Their users were reporting that loading speeds were sluggish. By using content acceleration features as part of a CDN service package, they were able to increase speeds in China to be ten times faster.
• A gaming company that made games for both mobile and desktop users was seeing their origin site being overloaded by a large number of small-sized files and an uneven geographic distribution of users trying to access them. These traffic surges were resulting in higher operating costs as the origin site was constantly overloaded. By using China Telecom’s CDN services they were able to reduce the bandwidth load on the origin site by 99% and have since seen user numbers steadily increase as they no longer have to deal with a sluggish service.

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) can take down even the most robust of networks, resulting in millions of lost sales, crippled services and a damaged reputation. Networks of computers known as Botnets, sometimes made up of millions of machines, overwhelm a target system and cause floods of traffic to overwhelm a target.

Botnets are also increasingly including IoT (Internet of Things) devices and as the number of these devices grows into the billions, the potential size of these botnets is increasing.

DDoS Attacks can be divided into 3 main categories:

• Volume based attacks: Generating a large amount of network-level requests, these overwhelm network equipment and services with UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and ICMP (internet control message protocol) floods.
• Application layer attacks: Attackers generate huge numbers of requests to software applications, which give the appearance of coming from legitimate users.
• Protocol attacks: These attacks generate requests that target existing weaknesses in network protocols. These include SYN floods where the attacker rapidly initiates but never finalises a connection, consuming enough resources to knock out access to legitimate traffic.

Why is an Anti-DDoS solution important for operations in China?

According to 2020 statistics, China suffers from 72.8% of global DDoS attacks, compared to the US which in second place suffers from 13.1% of attacks. The methods that the hackers are using have evolved from traditional high bandwidth/volumetric attacks to a stealthier application-layer attack. In some cases, the attacks are a combination of both.

When dealing with a DDoS attack, system administrators need to really understand the depth of the DDoS problem. Attacks are increasing in scale and sophistication, with malware-infected machines being utilized to launch attacks. Systems administrators need to have excellent visibility of this threatening environment and need a full-spectrum solution to defend themselves.

Why choose China Telecom Yunti Solution for Anti-DDoS?

The “Yunti Solution” is China Telecom (Europe)’s first “Carrier” level cloud-network collaborative distributed attack protection network. It is designed to directly eliminate the source of the attack.

It contains 3 key services:

• Attack Monitoring: It provides 24/7 real-time traffic monitoring with real-time alerts by SMS
• Attack protection: Provides real-time DDoS attack protection, based on the China Telecom backbone network
• Attack tracing: Outputs professional analysis reports once the attack has been concluded

These services, close to the source traffic, are effective within seconds and are already active nation-wide.

MAN/IDC/TianyiCloud 3.0 has clean pipe capability and bandwidth reservation which is No.1 in China in suppressing hostile traffic.

Media Distribution & Exchange (MDX) is used by broadcasters, media companies, sports events and content production companies to provide high quality video delivery and live broadcast stream across the globe via China Telecom (Europe)’s high capacity and reliable media networks.

MDX leverages China Telecom (Europe)’s purpose-built media networks based on our global optical backbone and satellite transmission resources. It is a one-stop media delivery solution supporting transcoding, aggregation, transmission, monitoring and playout services for TV channels and Online Video Platforms (OVP).

Why is MDX important for operations in China and globally?

When you are going to deliver major live events to global audiences, transport content from your venues to production facilities, or livestream media around the world, you will need a robust MDX network to ensure reliable media transmission and high-quality live broadcasting services.

Why choose China Telecom for MDX?

China Telecom (Europe)’s MDX service covers Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa, and other core regions, providing our customers with media signal collection and international live broadcast services through our extensive global partnerships.

MDX deploys high capacity, dedicated and fully protected backbones as the foundation of the transmission network so that the highest service availability and minimal latency can be achieved. It is customizable according to customer’s requirements. Moreover, real-time and proactive monitoring is provided to guarantee high video quality and service performance.

Elastic Connection Platform (or ECP) is a global interconnection service for multi-cloud enterprises seeking direct, private connectivity between data centres, office locations, and leading cloud service providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP and Alicloud.

In summary, ECP can help to:

• Multi-cloud connectivity
• Rapid Provisioning
• Scalable demand
• Cost Effective
• Self-service portal

Why is an ECP important for operation in China and the European region?

Using the public internet to connect to cloud applications in China can result in significant interruptions on links in over congested metros.

ECP completely avoids the public internet between China and Europe and includes automated failover on redundant connections as a part of the base service.

Why choose China Telecom for ECP?

China Telecom Elastic Connection Platform (ECP) offers network operators a direct or hybrid end-to-end interconnection platform with immediate advantages in simplicity, performance, security, flexibility, and cost. Through the ECP customer portal, operators can quickly provision secure, high-quality multi-cloud connections from a variety of pre-established Layer 2 and 3 connectivity options to the ECP ecosystem of cloud service providers (CSPs) between availability zones inside and outside of China.

ECP is a pre-provisioned service using CT’s global SDN-based Data Center Interconnection (DCI) backbone network (AS 36678) along with APIs and integrations to leading cloud service providers (CSPs) inside and outside of Mainland China.

There are over 80 public cloud locations and 140 DC already accessed by CTG ECP.

If your company is looking for a single provider for flexible and secure multi-cloud connectivity, then choose China Telecom’s Elastic Cloud Platform: the leading interconnection platform for Globally Distributed Enterprise.

IoT devices are not only limited to home-based devices such as voice-activated assistants, music players and other smart devices. IoT devices are transforming businesses around the world and are driving growth in major industries including healthcare, energy, transport, logistics and retail. Network coverage and availability are key for any business, IoT devices are connecting operations across sectors in an increasingly advanced manner.

Cisco estimates that there will be 4 connected devices per person by 2023 and is estimated to generate $1.1tn in revenue for businesses globally by 2025.

Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT)

Narrowband carries voice data on a limited number of frequencies, using lower bandwidth. With NB-IoT you see better coverage and indoor penetration, with an optimised power consumption and spectrum efficiency. To date China Telecom has 101 commercial NB-IOT networks in 55 countries around the world.

There is a vast array of solutions available, these are included but not limited to: EV charging, tracking solutions, street lamps, gate controls, Air conditioners, human body sensors, gas alarms, water meters and weather stations.

The Connected Vehicle

China Telecom was approached by a European vehicle manufacturer, who wanted to bring digital transformation to their business. They requested smart monitoring equipment to collect the data on their customers driving activity, to enhance the algorithms that would significantly reduce the insurance premiums for their customers. This would result in increased sales, as consumers will obviously be more inclined to buy a vehicle with cheaper insurance. The results were immediate, in 2020 the manufacturer increased sales in their home market by a third and became the best-selling and most searched motorcycle company in their domestic market.

Robotics in the workplace

We have all seen the videos of vast warehouses and factories utilising thousands of machines to manufacture vast quantities of products with limited human intervention. However, connected robots are now being used in a vast array of business environments. During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses were paying more attention than ever to keep their employees and visitors safe. SmartSafe robots provided by China Telecom patrolled offices to disinfect and sterilise office areas to keep them clean and conducted temperature screening checks.

Even smaller logistics operations are now using picking robots, which choose the most efficient travel paths to achieve the best possible delivery experience. They have the added benefit of being able to work 24/7 with no human intervention. Businesses that have worked with China Telecom and begun using picking robots have seen their picking rate triple, with picking accuracy increasing up to 99.9%. Return on investment is achieved within 2-3 years.

Why choose China Telecom for IoT?

China Telecom is a global leader in IoT, with the largest IoT network infrastructure worldwide. By the end of 2020, China Telecom had 60 million connections in China alone. Providing integrated and mature solutions, CTE creates a bespoke IoT ecosystem for your business with a wide range of thousands of IoT devices to choose from.

China Telecom works with a network of 1500+ vertical industry partners and 30+ chip manufacturers to ensure an unbeatable selection of devices and a robust supply chain.

Managing branches, operations and supply chains across multiple regions is a complex task. No network runs perfectly, with jitter and downtime being a constant headache for firms with an international presence. Companies find themselves having to manage equipment from multiple hardware and software vendors, with a mix of both legacy and new hardware that operate in co-existence. Having to manage such a wide range of vendors in-house is close to impossible, with professional certification required to identify and resolve issues in a timely manner that will not impact business.

China Telecom Europe established a TAC centre in Romania in H1 2020. It holds a dedicated support team providing a centralised technical support service to customers. Providing on demand remote or onsite support, China Telecom engineers are certified to work across hardware and software from major vendors, such as Cisco, Huawei, Juniper, Novell, Fortinet, Oracle, SUN, IBM, MS, VMWare and ITIL. With experience working across the finance, manufacturing, ICT, retail, energy, media and the retail industry, qualified engineers are available 24/7 in multiple languages to provide remote and onsite support.

Since coming online in 2020, the TAC has handled hundreds of monthly tickets on a wide range of projects.

China Telecom (Europe) has partnered with Reuters to conduct a global survey to provide insight into business challenges when operating in the China-APAC region. The information was collected from retailers, manufacturers, logistics service providers, technology solutions providers, start-ups and media associations. This broad survey provided a perspective into supply chain challenges in China-APAC.

Despite the pandemic and global trade factors, the majority of respondents say that China is still a major market for their business. Over half of them placed the region as central to their supply chain operations (52%) with a further 18% stating that a number of their own facilities are based in China.

Ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations was highlighted as a major concern of survey respondents, with 53% citing it as a persistent pain. Furthermore, 42% of respondents said that regulatory compliance with telecommunications regulations. Many respondents also suffered with cross-border communications, with 25% suffering from poor audio and video quality operating between China and the rest of the world.

Predictive analysis and forecasting capabilities have been highlighted by businesses operating in the China-APAC as an area of key investment. Enabled by cloud technologies and exacerbated by COVID-19 surges, these latest technologies will be key for firms that need better certainty in predicting supply and demand levels, especially as labour-intensive manufacturing is impacted by workers isolating. Only 9% of firms operating in China-APAC have moved entirely to the cloud, with 47% stating they have begun shifting their businesses to the cloud. 31% however, were exploring options to begin this transformation and are in the appraisal stage. Only 13% of firms had no plans to shift.

IoT devices are generating a lot of attention in recent years, with 39% of businesses surveyed are already using IoT capabilities within their supply chain and logistics operations. The majority (59%) of firms using IoT are using them for real-time location tracking across their supply chain, in an attempt to cut down on misplacements and delays.

Survey respondents are all in agreement that the next 12-18 months will all be about the development of AI technologies. These models enable enhanced decision making, warehouse automation, robotics and more. The logistics industry is full of enthusiasm for AI and Machine learning, with 40% stating that AI will be the game changing technology over the next 5 years.

The full survey can be viewed here:

https://media.chinatelecomeurope.com/view/480938548/

The PRC Telecommunications Regulations
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2020-12/26/content_5574368.htm

The Administrative Provisions on Foreign-funded Telecommunications Enterprises
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2020-12/26/content_5574436.htm

The PRC Civil Code
http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202006/75ba6483b8344591abd07917e1d25cc8.shtml

The PRC Cybersecurity Law
http://www.npc.gov.cn/wxzl/gongbao/2017-02/20/content_2007531.htm

The PRC Personal Information Protection Law
http://fzzfyjy.cupl.edu.cn/info/1077/12335.htm