China's radio, film and television authority has said it will speed up building the high-speed Next-Generation of Broadcasting (NGB) networks, to ensure an equal footing for competition as well as cooperation with the country's telecommunications networks, China Securities Journal reported Monday.

The technology department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said in a notice dated July 8 that a work group for NGB will be formed to promote the application of research achievements on NGB. The team will take voluntary applications from related enterprises and organizations, as well as technical experts from colleges and universities, the report said.

The SARFT hopes that the NGB networks will be ready for use across the country by 2015, enabling each individual subscriber to enjoy data rates of up to 100 Mbps, the paper said.

Industry insiders said the latest move means the SARFT wants the NGB networks to catch up with those of the telecommunications carriers in infrastructure, and it can bring good business opportunities for radio, TV and film equipment providers as the total investment in NGB is estimated to reach about 300 billion yuan in coming years, according to the report.

The SARFT started a NGB trial in Shanghai in 2009, aiming to build a local NGB demonstration network with 500,000 subscribers by the end of this year. According to the original plans, it will take ten years to build NGB networks covering 300 million users and 200 million households nationwide.

Yuan Ming, chairman of Shenzhen Coship Electronics Co, said the SARFT became more earnest to accelerate the building of NGB networks after the launch of a major pilot program for converging the country's telecommunications, Internet and broadcast networks.

On July 1, the triple network project was launched in 12 Chinese cities to make those networks compatible so that subscribers can make telephone calls, access the Internet and watch television through one cable or wireless gateway.