EDITOR'S note:

AS Shanghai is shifting its growth gear toward a more sustainable model with an improved economic structure and environmentally friendly methods, the city's major state-owned enterprises are making their contributions to bolstering the local economy. Starting today, Shanghai Daily will run a three-part series on how SOEs of strategic significance in different sectors flex their muscles on the way to thrive. Today's story is about the city's information technology sector as the city goes smart.

Shanghai sees its future as a "smart city," embracing innovations such as continuous online video playing across mobile phones, tablet computers and desktops, global positioning system trackers on buses and a system of online personal medical records.

The "smart city" concept is the jewel of Shanghai's economic transformation into a hub of high-tech and service industries, city Mayor Han Zheng said when delivering the government's annual work report.

Key players in that strategy are the state-owned corporate giants in strategic industries. In Shanghai, SOEs related to the "smart city" project are telecommunications operators China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, as well as a telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell.

"The SOEs play important roles in the project, thanks to their huge investment and considerable influence," said Huang Zhaoda, a senior official at the Shanghai Municipal Commission Of Economy and Information Technology Development, the city's top industry regulator.

Faster broadband

With mobile broadband services, people are able to access to various Internet services, including online video and remote security monitoring.

China Unicom aims to attract more than 10 million consumers by 2015, triple the current level, thanks to its 3G network with WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) technology, the most commercially mature mobile broadband networks among the three carriers.

"Based on the fast and stable 3G network, people are able to enjoy a better life through their handsets," said Shen Hongbo, China Unicom's Shanghai branch vice general manager.

For example, China Unicom is talking with major automakers about allowing drivers to connect their phones and cars through WCDMA networks that would pinpoint exact locations of cars or even permit them to be controlled them through handsets.

In the Minhang District of Shanghai, public transport authorities have set up a monitoring system to send out more buses during peak hours. In future, there are plans to provide a service where residents will be able to gauge the schedule of buses based on GPS trackers on the vehicles, Shanghai Daily has learned.

This year, Shanghai Unicom's revenue is expected to hit 7.5 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion). The figure will surpass 10 billion yuan by 2014, thanks to new value-added services.

Family broadband speed, often derided by locals, is expected to double for many households. By the end of this year, the faster fiber optic network will cover 6.5 million local families, a fourfold increase from last year, according to China Telecom, the city's biggest fixed-line network provider.

Online video

People now can watch video content on handsets or tablet computers on the way to work, on office computer while at work and on television at home after work. Online video content won't be interrupted, even though on different devices. The service is provided by China Mobile, the country's biggest mobile carrier with more than 700 million users.

"We can provide continuous online video content across different devices, with most reasonable Internet speed and definition," said Zhou Hongbing, vice manager of China Mobile's video operations center based in Shanghai.

The video operations center is one of the nine centers of China Mobile nationwide, focusing on various services like mobile video, mobile reading and mobile payment.

In the Shanghai center, the carrier works on video content management and integration, through cooperation with top domestic video Websites like Youku Tudou, PPTV and BesTV. China Mobile's video client end, which is available on Apple's iOS and Google's Android, has about 60 million users nationwide already.

The video broadcasting platform is able to send out video clips with different definition according to different network environment, which ensures fluency of video. For example, people have content with basic image quality in the 2G network, better quality in 3G network and high-definition content in Wi-Fi or broadband networks. The switches finish automatically within seconds, according to Shanghai Mobile.

At present, Shanghai has also 1.6 million IPTV (Internet protocol TV) family users, ranking the No. 1 nationwide.

Shanghai will upgrade its Wi-Fi network with more hot spots and higher security levels as it seeks to establish itself as a "wireless city" under the city's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

By 2013, Shanghai will have more than 22,000 Wi-Fi hot spots, including free Wi-Fi services called i-Shanghai, which provides users two hours' Internet connection in public regions like airports, shopping centers and museums.

The Wi-Fi network allows people to access the Internet through mobile phones, tablet computers and laptops. Wi-Fi is faster than current 2G and 3G networks, which provide access to films and 3D games via handsets.

4G network

Besides Wi-Fi, more than 10 models of handsets supporting homegrown 4G technology will debut next year, and by 2014 there will be more than 100 available on the domestic market, industry officials said.

They will support the China-developed TD-LTE (time division-long term evolution) technology, a 4G technology 10 or 20 times faster than current 3G technology.

China Mobile is currently testing its 4G network in 13 cities across the country, including Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou.

Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell has won a major contract to deploy the largest share of China Mobile's new TD-LTE trial network rollout. It will deliver approximately 3,000 base stations in the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao, the Shanghai-based telecommunications equipment maker said on Tuesday.

At present, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell has become a key research and manufacturing center for parent firm Alcatel-Lucent, according to Chen Weidong, the company's vice president.

In 2011, Alcatel-Shanghai Bell's revenue was 20 billion yuan and overseas income contributed 50 percent to the total revenue, compared with only 5 percent several years ago, Chen added.