China Telecom piggybacks EE to create UK network

China Telecom is following through on its promise to launch a UK network in 2012, piggybacking on Everything Everywhere's network for the 400,000 Chinese speakers in the UK. The virtual network is scheduled to launch in the next three months, and will be run by China Telecom Europe - a wholly-owned operation with aspirations …

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one...

...welcome our new Chinese Overlords. (Presses little Red Book to chest) I hope they can recognize the value of having people like myself around to inform on the puppets of imperialist so-called democracy. After getting the phones converted to Chinese the next step is monitoring the speed cameras 24/7 for insurgent activity. Then we turn the bus lanes into Peoples Revolutionary Army lanes and all will be well.

Sleep well imperialist pig-dogs. Sleep well.

[Anonymous Coward]

and you think you are joking...

As long as you don't mind working 4 times as hard for 1/4 the wages you will indeed be welcomed. You will be the envy of your unemployed colleagues who will be on the dole which will be worth a (small) bowl of rice a day soon.

[Anonymous Coward]

^^^ True, but think of the plus side: copyrights and patents will be irrelevant.

[spegru]

indeed: Almost every day I look to see how hight Chinese Inflation is: Let's see now 15% vs uk 5%. So that's 10% difference. My reckoning makes that 15yrs before their costs match ours (~4x).

Hmm

[Refugee from Windows]

'Er indoors

Don't think the other half would go for this myself, but then what language support options will they offer? Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka?

[Anonymous Coward]

All together now

I like Chinese.

I like Chinese.

There's [-]nine hundred million[/-] one billion and three hundred million of them in the world today.

You'd better learn to like them; that's what I say.

-- Monty Python (updated for 2011)

[spegru]

Ooh does that mean

we can have a censored internet connection?!

I bet UK Huawei & ZTE people will be forced to use it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, they don't even get internet. Actually true in some of their offices.

[Anonymous Coward]

Choice

You can have a SOPA-d Internet with little piracy but lots porn or the Chinese one with lots of piracy but little porn (or Youtube, if you're into that).

I suspect dual SIM phones will become very popular.

[Anonymous Coward]

But what if you want to pirate your porn? Because who the hell pays for porn nowadays?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I hope someone does, I'd like to think we're past the age where sperm was considered a satisfactory and nutritious meal replacement.

[Ilgaz]

Funny that

Huawei is one of few to put entire original android ROM sources on their web site.

If I wasn't lazy and had 4 free cores, I was planning to compile my original ROM with a newer gcc.

Another thing is, there is almost no extra stupid extra apps on their stock firmware.

[Anonymous Coward]

Service for Chinese speakers in Blighty to launch 2012

So can Chinese speakers not speak Chinese across existing services in the UK...?

[JulianB]

...and can English speakers not speak English across a CT network?

[Chris Martin 2]

And Who wants Internet?

Probably will come with all you can eat data, most sites including the BBC will be blocked though!

[williemaykit]

Perhaps we should force them to establish a joint venture with a local company?

[HMB]

Lose the Tin Foil hats

As much as we forget the past at our folly, we need to grow up and embrace the future.

It's not hard to see that switching from a planned economy to a more free market approach has brought unparalleled prosperity to a previously poor nation. I simply don't see any repeat of Soviet style communism.

What China offers in a positive light, is a possible alternative to democracy that may put them ahead of us. I certainly want to be in a Democracy, but it's going to be interesting watching China. Can China outperform Democracy in terms of bringing it's people the best?

One can't help but admire the epic levels of growth the country is going through.

I wish them well and I respect them. I also think that globally we need to be more co-operative and less confrontational.

[Anonymous Coward]

ChinaGov = bad. China people = good

I suspect this will be used by people like my wife (assuming they offer cheap calls to/from China), so they can talk more often to family without worrying about the cost, at least with those family members who dont have either internet access, or a smart phone that can access QQ

BTW the BBC ISNT censored in China, only the website's Chinese language output; BBC TV World News is available by subscription to many cable and sat users.

Even the restrictions on porn have been relaxed, and it is now possible to view western porn sites ( i checked out a few I remember from my bachelor days to see if the stories about the relaxation were true), although Youtube and some other sites are still blocked.

Google services are "harassed", sometimes working and sometimes not.

We are both looking forwards to watching CCTV in the UK; by comparing their reports to the BBC output it is clear that it is a lot more honest than say Pravda's output.