[1]SIDEBAR [2]Newsbytes Advertising China Internet Roaming Hit By Clampdown ****China Internet Roaming Hit By Clampdown 08/18/97 HONG KONG, CHINA, 1997 AUG 18 (NB) -- By Neil Taylor, IT Daily. Business travelers in China have had their Internet access hit by severe restrictions placed on roaming services by authorities. The trouble began a month ago, after officials began examining access services provided by Equant, a division of international airline network service provider SITA. Sources within SITA were unable to confirm the precise circumstances, but it appears that officials from within China's Posts Telephone and Telegraphs administration were unhappy with the fact that the company was reselling access to third parties including iPass, CompuServe and America Online. As a result, Equant was forced to suspend much of its non-airline business, including Internet roaming services. "We had to basically cut back on non-airline users, so this could be a case of our having to cut off some of the dead wood to save the airline side," a SITA executive admitted. "Our relationship with China is kind of up and down. It's not with the government; we get along with them fine; it's with the local PTTs," he added. The restrictions meant that iPass lost its points of presence (POPs) in Guangzhou, Tianjin, Shanghai and Xiamen. Following the closures, iPass also suspended POPs in Brunei, Cuba, French Polynesia, India, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Vietnam. Among iPass partners affected by the clampdown, Hong Kong ISPs are likely to be worst affected. But Abel Lau, president of Hong Kong ISP I-Wave, said his company had not been badly hit by the problem. "We do not have many users in China, and they've been using access in Beijing, so we haven't had many problems." I-Wave estimates that "maybe one percent" of its members use iPass roaming services in China. Chris Moore, president and CEO of iPass, said his company would soon announce solutions for affected customers. "We are actively working on expanding our access in China," he said." We have several access points in Beijing and anticipate coverage in Shanghai, southern China and other parts of the country very soon." "We know China is a very important market," Moore told Newsbytes. "We were working with providers there before this situation arose. We have always been committed to that market and want to develop strong and lasting relationships with the right organizations. Our relationship with Equant (SITA) remains strong, this is an issue we worked closely on." (19970819/ Reported By Newsbytes News Network: [3]http://www.newsbytes.com /CHINASCREEN/PHOTO) [4]Copyright ©Newsbytes News Network. All rightsreserved. For more Newsbytes see http://www.newsbytes.com. [5]Home | [6]Daily | [7]Weekly | [8]Publishers | [9]Search References 1. http://www.newsbytes.com/menus/navbar.map 2. http://www.newsbytes.com/OAS/rm/try-it.cgi/www.newsbytes.com/home.html 3. http://www.newsbytes.com/ 4. http://www.nbnn.com/copyrght.html 5. http://www.nbnn.com/home.html 6. http://www.nbnn.com/news/s_daily.html 7. http://www.nbnn.com/news/s_week.html 8. http://www.nbnn.com/publishers/publi_1.html 9. http://www.nbnn.com/html_p/search.html