China on Friday announced that it will build its first high-capacity optic fibre network nationwide, which is able to carry Internet, TV and phone services through one network.

The Ministry of Science and Technology signed an agreement with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on building the national network.

The backbone network of the new one will have a bandwidth of 1,000 G bits, comparing with the current one of 1 G bits. It will allow every user in the network to have a 100-M-bit per second access to the Internet than the existing 1-M-bit access, said a ministry press release.

With such a bandwidth, the network can provide a package of Internet, TV and phone services, instead of services through separated networks.

A regional network has been built in the Yangtze River Delta and put on a trial run for one year since December, 2006, covering about 30,000 users.

"The lab tests and trial run showed the network and related softwares were stable enough for commercial operation," said a ministry official refused to be named.

But the nationwide program is still in a very early stage. The agreement did not mention the timetable of construction nor the cost.

"Although the new network has a high capacity, whether it is able to provide a package service will depend on telecom companies," the official said.

Insiders here said the SARFT was interested in the new network as the existing copper cable network for TV programs was of low capacity and needed updating. But Internet and telecom service providers might not be so eager to give up the existing network and invest much in a new one.