Editor's note
On July 18, 2014, China Tower was born because of sharing. As a new state-owned enterprise established after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China Tower completely, accurately and comprehensively implements the new development concept, serves the information and communication industry, and continues to expand and share articles. Starting from a capital of 10 billion yuan, it has gradually grown into the world's largest integrated communication infrastructure service provider with 320 billion assets and 2.1 million sites.
Wherever there are people, there are communication towers. In the past ten years, China Tower has gradually moved from industry sharing to more extensive social sharing, which has not only significantly optimized the construction environment of communication facilities and promoted the high-quality development of the industry, but also achieved positive results in ecological environmental protection, network operation guarantee and sharing for the people, and has embarked on a unique shared development path, which is summarized as the "tower model of sharing competition and cooperation".
The State-owned Assets Report published on July 1, 2024 launched a special plan "The Generation of the "Tower Model", which reviews the ten-year development process of China Tower. Today, we bring you an exclusive interview with Zhang Zhiyong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Tower, "Deepening the Effectiveness of Professional Integration and Seeking Win-Win through Sharing"——
Deepening the effectiveness of professional integration and seeking win-win results through sharingInterview with Zhang Zhiyongwen, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Tower, · Reporter Wu Xiaoyan "State-owned Assets Report" magazine No. 7 in 2024
In 2014, China Tower was born out of sharing. As a new state-owned enterprise established after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China Tower completely, accurately and comprehensively implements the new development concept, serves the information and communication industry, and continues to expand and share articles. Starting from a capital of 10 billion yuan, it has gradually grown into the world's largest integrated communication infrastructure service provider with 320 billion assets and 2.1 million sites. Wherever there are people, there are communication towers. In the past ten years, China Tower has gradually moved from industry sharing to more extensive social sharing, which has not only significantly optimized the construction environment of communication facilities and promoted the high-quality development of the industry, but also achieved positive results in ecological environmental protection, network operation guarantee and sharing for the people, and has embarked on a unique shared development path, which is summarized as the "tower model of sharing competition and cooperation". What lessons does the "tower model" provide for subsequent professional integration? How will China Tower continue to promote high-quality development in the future? Recently, the reporter of "State-owned Assets Report" exclusively interviewed Zhang Zhiyong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Tower.
State-owned Assets Report: "Sharing" is an indispensable word for the development of China Tower. According to the data, the sharing rate of new towers has increased significantly from 14.3% at the beginning of the establishment of China Towers to 85.5%. In the past ten years, how has China Tower done a thorough job of "sharing"? Zhang Zhiyong: Sharing is the innate gene of China Tower. By continuously deepening industry sharing, expanding social sharing, and deepening the sharing of articles, we have gradually formed a strategic layout of "one body and two wings", so that the tower site facilities all over the country continue to glow with new value in the digital era, and the "tower model of sharing competition and cooperation" has become another successful practice of the new development concept in the field of communications. We deepen industry sharing and support the construction of a cyber power. We will fully support the construction and development of China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile, and achieve a global leader in 5G. Through sharing, it not only saves industry investment and accelerates the speed of network construction, but also promotes the extension of communication networks to the central and western regions and rural areas. We deepen social sharing and serve to support the construction of a digital China. While serving the communication industry, we continue to explore the social sharing value of the tower site, focus on promoting "one tower with multiple uses", and promote the transformation of "communication tower" to "digital tower", forming the country's largest tower sharing platform and medium and high point practical Internet of Things platform, which has played an increasingly important role in serving the modernization of national governance. At present, 220,000 of the 2.1 million communication towers have been equipped with high-definition cameras, radars, and Internet of Things sensors, becoming "digital towers"; At the same time, based on the unique advantages of rich scenarios in medium and high points, we have strengthened the research and development of algorithms in medium and high point scenarios, and formed an AI algorithm warehouse covering more than 140 algorithms, some of which have reached the domestic or international leading level. In recent years, based on the Internet, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the national unified visual platform, China Tower has provided video surveillance, data collection, image analysis, Internet of Things and other information services for emergency, environmental protection, water conservancy, land, forestry and grassland, earthquake, politics and law, transportation, countryside, cultural tourism and other industries, and has played an important role in major national projects and projects such as "mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand", "rural revitalization", the ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River, and earthquake monitoring and quick reports. We have deepened energy sharing, relying on 2.1 million site resources and distributed power networks and energy storage systems to provide new energy services such as new energy travel, power security, and comprehensive energy to the society, contributing to the "dual carbon" goal.
At about 6 o'clock on June 6, 2015, employees of Yantai Branch of China Tower installed the base station in Dongliuzitou, Taocun, Qixia.
State-owned Assets Report: At the beginning of the establishment of China Tower, there was a fear that the concentration of these scattered resources in one hand would form a monopoly, and bring some cost increases or management inconvenience to the three operators, which would eventually be passed on to consumers. What do you think about this? Zhang Zhiyong: Recently, officials and industry experts from foreign telecommunications authorities mentioned with us that in China, great progress has been made in the co-construction and sharing of mobile communication base stations, 5G construction has been the world's leading, network construction is so fast, and the sharing effect is so good, why? I think there are two main reasons, one is the market mechanism, and the other is government regulation, and the two hands of the market and the government's "hand" work together. First of all, the communication tower site service is completely market-oriented, there is no monopoly, and we are not exclusive. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a special document, "basic telecommunications enterprises in accordance with the principle of marketization, choose China Tower or other independent tower operators to undertake the demand for new towers", and "operators can build some towers and floor poles by themselves". Now in this market, in addition to China Tower providing comprehensive services for tower site facilities, there are hundreds of social tower companies in operation, as well as three operators self-built tower base stations. Although the outdoor and indoor stations of China Tower account for a certain share of the market, the market is fully competitive. In recent years, we have accelerated the construction speed, improved the construction quality, strengthened professional services, and formed the "three excellent and one low" business advantages of "excellent comprehensive cost, excellent construction delivery, excellent maintenance service, and low management risk", and operators are often more willing to choose us. Secondly, as a listed company, China Tower operates in a completely market-oriented mode of operation, and our business pricing with the three operators is completed through market-oriented methods such as negotiation and negotiation. Over the years, although prices and labor are rising, our single-tenant rent, through the deepening of sharing, cost reduction, and technological progress, has decreased by nearly 20% since 2017, saving a lot of operating costs for the industry. In addition, China Tower has innovated in terms of system and mechanism to improve efficiency. For example, the market-oriented personnel selection and employment mechanism, the refined management based on single-station accounting, independent research and development and continuous improvement of IT systems in line with their own reality, the acceleration of intelligent operation and maintenance, asset management and other digital and intelligent operation management, improve the level of specialization and intensification, and so on. At present, China Tower manages about 100 towers per capita, which is much higher than the level of international tower companies, and the labor productivity of all employees is about 2.96 million yuan/person, ranking in the forefront of central enterprises.
State-owned Assets Report: Will the birth and development of new technologies have a greater impact on the business model of China Tower? What efforts has China Tower made in terms of scientific and technological innovation? Zhang Zhiyong: Technological progress is a key factor in promoting economic and social development, which has promoted the accelerated emergence of new industries and new business forms. We have to embrace this change, embrace it, and not be left behind by it. The birth and development of new technologies, some of which are inherited from the previous generation of technology, and some of which are disruptive innovations, but no matter how the technology evolves, our shared business model and ultra-large-scale mobile communication infrastructure will still play an irreplaceable fundamental role in the development of the new generation of mobile communication technology. At the same time, we are also deeply aware that to embrace the new scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, we must increase scientific and technological innovation, unswervingly build a scientific and technological and innovative enterprise, and make scientific and technological innovation the first driving force for development. In terms of scientific and technological innovation, China Tower has done a lot of work in the fields of 5G, Internet of Things platform algorithms, artificial intelligence, and new energy in recent years. However, there is still a long way to go in comparison with the requirements of promoting the establishment of a modern industrial system and the requirements of better services to support a cyber power and a digital China. In the next step, China Tower will accelerate the formation of new quality productivity as the traction, face the world's frontier of science and technology, face the main battlefield of digital economy, face the major development needs of the country, face the production needs and customer needs, accelerate the overall layout of 14 scientific and technological innovation fields such as shared room sharing, edge computing, Internet of Things, green and low-carbon, and accelerate the development of strategic emerging industries and future industries. At present, we have clarified more than 80 key research tasks such as the large model of the spatial governance industry and the edge system of heterogeneous computing power of different networks, and continue to deepen the management mechanism of the "four lists" such as the list of capability levels, the list of task items, the list of resource allocation, and the list of achievement transformation, so as to strengthen the closed-loop promotion of scientific and technological innovation, so that scientific and technological innovation can truly become the main line, background and bottom board of the company's business development. We will also continue to increase the research and development of key core technologies such as 5G-A, 6G, edge computing power networks, video AI algorithms, medium and high-point Internet of Things, new energy materials, and energy Internet, actively explore the collaborative integration of satellite network technology and cellular technology, promote the development of future networks, and strive to strengthen original and leading scientific and technological research, and enhance independent control and original innovation capabilities in key areas. At the same time, we are also accelerating the construction of an industry-university-research integration innovation ecology, forming an innovation consortium with scientific research institutes and universities, and working together with industry, academia and research to accelerate the formation of new quality productivity. From last year to the first half of this year, we have successively set up six science and technology innovation centers in Xiong'an, Nanjing, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou and Chengdu to strengthen innovation-driven development. We will further accelerate the transformation of "communication towers" into "digital towers", and strive to build communication towers into mid- and high-point IoT sensor integrations through "iron towers + big data + AI + edge computing". Through distributed deployment and centralized data operation, the national "one network", using a large number of medium and high point characteristic data, the large model of the spatial governance industry has been launched, the independent research and development of core algorithms has been increased, and the breakthrough from small models to large models has been promoted, and the integrated development of "artificial intelligence +" has been promoted, and the digital and intelligent industrial upgrading of spatial governance has been promoted, becoming a new digital infrastructure in the era of the Internet of Everything, empowering thousands of industries. Further accelerate the transformation of "communication room" into "data room", lay out the edge computing network, build a first-class distributed computing network, and actively integrate into the national computing network system by accelerating the development of edge computing power services with five characteristics of "distributed, low latency, low cost, small bandwidth, and certain computing power reserves", and promote the ubiquity, on-demand, and inclusiveness of computing power; Further change the "communication room division" to "digital room division", and serve the development of the digital economy of the underground space through the innovative application of indoor distribution system resources.
On June 30, 2019, the mobile communication infrastructure of Beijing Daxing International Airport, which was coordinated and constructed by China Tower, was basically completed, realizing comprehensive and high-quality coverage of the mobile network of the new airport and surrounding high-speed railways, high-speed highways and other important transportation lines.
State-owned Assets Report: Looking back on the ten-year development of the tower, what do you think is the most important experience? Zhang Zhiyong: At present, we are still a very young company, and we are constantly learning and growing. After ten years of development and growth, it is not easy, if you want to talk about experience, I think it is very important to fully implement the new development concept of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing. With the operator business as the main body, that is, the "communication infrastructure (tower and room division) sharing business", and the "social sharing service based on site resources" and "society-oriented energy services" as the two wings, we continue to expand the sharing article, relying on the unique resource endowment, changing the "social tower" to the "communication tower" and the "communication tower" to the "digital tower", and moving from industry sharing to more extensive social sharing. We regard innovation as the first driving force for development, whether it is the innovation of business model, the innovation of science and technology, the innovation of management or the innovation of business, which has played a very big role in the development of China Tower. Secondly, we have realized that it is the supporting and leading role of party building that ensures our sustainable and healthy development. I agree with the words of the France military strategist and statesman Napoleon: "There are two forces in the world: the sword and the mind; In the long run, the sword is always defeated by thought. "I believe that as a state-owned enterprise, it is our root and soul to adhere to the party's leadership and strengthen party building. We often talk about "two consistent", "upholding the party's leadership over state-owned enterprises is a major political principle, must be consistent; The establishment of a modern enterprise system is the orientation of the reform of state-owned enterprises, and it must also be carried out consistently. "The modern enterprise system coupled with the party's leadership is the power of the "sharp sword" plus the power of thought, which is our unique advantage. At present, China Tower has nearly 23,000 employees, and 12,693 are members of the Communist Party of China, accounting for more than 55%. Led by party building, party building leads to league building, gathers a strong joint force, and promotes high-quality development. Third, it is necessary to make good use of the "key move" of reform, jump out of the thinking mode of traditional state-owned enterprises, "wear new shoes and take a new road" in the system and mechanism, boldly innovate, and achieve efficient operation. In the next step, we must continue to solidly promote the deepening and upgrading of the reform of state-owned enterprises, establish the concept of "development of problems, reform and make a fuss", adhere to the problem-oriented, with reform thinking, solve the outstanding contradictions restricting the company's high-quality development, and promote development with reform, innovation with reform, talent construction with reform, and safety with reform. Fourth, it is to adhere to the people-centered development concept, adhere to the development for the people, development by the people, and the fruits of development shared by the people, which is the root and blood of enterprise development, and also the original mission. For the tower company, to practice the people-centered development concept is to always adhere to and deeply practice the value orientation of "customer-oriented, employee-oriented, service-oriented", realize self-value in the process of continuously creating value for customers and shareholders, realize employee value in the process of continuously realizing the company's value, and constantly calibrate the company's value coordinates in the benefit of customers and employees, which is an important experience in the company's development. Fifth, it is a blueprint to the end. Always adhere to integrity and innovation, continue to deepen the implementation of the strategy of "one body, two wings", and continue to expand and share articles. Adhere to the main responsibility and main business, focus on the network power, digital China, "double carbon" goal and quality power, strengthen products, improve services, and at the same time let the market mechanism and government supervision play a role together, to achieve an effective combination of an effective market and a promising government. Finally, it is a game of chess for state-owned central enterprises. The development of China Tower has benefited from the cooperation of central enterprises, which has also provided better conditions for cooperation. With the strong support and help of the three operators, we have deepened co-construction and sharing, and strengthened coordination and cooperation with state-owned enterprises in other fields such as State Grid, China Southern Power Grid, and State Railway Group, so as to promote two-way openness, sharing, integration and co-construction between industries, providing more convenient conditions for the development of the information and communication industry, and bringing more shared benefits to other central enterprises. While deepening the co-construction and sharing within the industry, China Tower is also actively promoting cross-industry cooperation, and resource sharing with energy, transportation, municipal, real estate and other industries is also accelerating.
State-owned Assets Report: In the next step, how will China Tower improve its core competitiveness, enhance its core functions, and accelerate high-quality development? Zhang Zhiyong: The core competitiveness of China Tower can be summarized from three aspects: resources, relationships and capabilities. In terms of resource competitiveness, we currently have more than 2.1 million tower site resources all over the country, accounting for about half of the world's total, and are the world's largest communication infrastructure service provider. The resource endowment of this globally networked tower site can be said to be unique and unparalleled. In terms of relationship competitiveness, the three operators are our shareholders and customers, and this integrated ownership structure of shareholders and customers is an important advantage for the company. Under the overall guidance of government departments, our local branches are integrated into the local governance system on behalf of the industry, and are a powerful starting point for the government to promote the implementation of communication infrastructure policies. At present, there are 292 prefecture and city companies that undertake the functions of local communication construction offices and play a coordinating role in the industry; 418 prefectures and cities are stationed in the administrative examination and approval hall on behalf of the industry by the tower company. In terms of capability competitiveness, we have three core competency advantages. The first is the ability to coordinate and share resources based on co-construction and sharing. Through ten years of development, we have continuously strengthened our ability to coordinate resources in the communications industry, and promoting the co-construction and sharing of tower sites has become a key success factor for the rapid development of mobile communications. We implement the coordinated development of "one body and two wings", and the company's various resources, capabilities and customers are shared in an all-round way, which constitutes an important competitive advantage in terms of cost and efficiency, which is our core value and competitiveness. The second is digital capabilities, in view of the multi-faceted characteristics of the communication base site, in accordance with the principle of "automatic without manual and remote without on-site", we have adopted "terminal video collection + cloud AI computing + edge AI computing" and other means to basically realize the functions of automatic inspection, independent order dispatch, intelligent asset management, etc., to achieve remote management, no station management, and realize the intelligent and digital operation of tower sites all over the country. The third is the full-time emergency support capability of the whole network, with more than 80,000 maintenance teams across the country providing localized support and guarantee to ensure 24×7 rapid response services.
During the 2022 Winter Olympics, China Tower Zhangjiakou Branch made every effort to do a good job in the torch relay and the heavy protection work during the opening ceremony, and dispatched 100 support personnel to ensure the normal operation of the equipment and facilities at the communication site. For state-owned central enterprises, the core functions must focus on the mission and tasks shouldered by the enterprise, adhere to and strengthen the main business, and play an indispensable and irreplaceable role in various industries. To enhance the core function, it is necessary to embody the core function in enhancing the leading role and strategic supporting role of the state-owned economy, and in better performing the functions of strategic security, industrial guidance, national economy and people's livelihood, and public services, so as to realize the organic unity of economic, political and social attributes. At present, China Tower's three business segments of "one body and two wings" correspond to the three major fields of new generation mobile communications, artificial intelligence and new energy. The core function of China Tower is to assume the responsibilities of the national team and the main force in the construction of 5G new infrastructure, new generation mobile communication industry infrastructure and digital infrastructure, and serve and support the construction of a network power. Undertake the responsibility of supporting the development of the digital economy, digital governance, and empowering thousands of industries, and serve to support the construction of digital China; Undertake the responsibility of serving people's livelihood, do a good job in diversified energy businesses such as battery swapping, charging, and power backup, promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the economy and society, and serve to support the "double carbon" goal; With high-quality quality and service, we help the company accelerate the construction of a world-class enterprise and support the quality of the country. At the same time, ensuring the safe and stable operation of mobile communication networks, especially emergency support in extreme cases, is an important political responsibility of the company and the core function of the company. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, we will continue to improve the level of network operation and maintenance, continue to build and strengthen emergency communication support capabilities, and make every effort to protect the lifeline of communication networks. In the next step, China Tower will thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches and important instructions, firmly grasp the general goal of becoming stronger, better and more powerful state-owned capital and state-owned enterprises, firmly grasp the general principle of adhering to the party's overall leadership over state-owned central enterprises, and firmly grasp the general requirement of actively serving the national strategy, continue to enhance core competitiveness, enhance core functions, give full play to the role of scientific and technological innovation, industrial control and safety support, anchor a goal, and grasp three keys: the first key is to strengthen scientific and technological innovation. accelerate the formation of new qualitative productivity; The second key is to accelerate the implementation of the deepening and upgrading of the reform of state-owned enterprises and stimulate the vitality of high-quality development. Scientific and technological innovation and reform have already been specifically discussed. The third key is to strengthen party building and ensure high-quality development with high-quality party building. The focus is to grasp a main line, that is, to grasp the main line of the high-quality implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee in China Tower; Improve a system, that is, improve the comprehensive and strict governance of the party system of China Tower; Forging a carrier, that is, continuing to forge the carrier of "five-heart party building", including refining "loyalty", sticking to the "original intention", integrating into the "center", condensing "people's hearts", maintaining "vigilance", and promoting the transformation of enterprise party building advantages into development advantages and competitive advantages through forging "five-heart" party building. One goal is to accelerate the construction of a world-class enterprise. World-class enterprises are an important carrier of Chinese modernization and an indispensable backbone of Chinese modernization. For China Tower, it is necessary to deepen the implementation of the "one body, two wings" strategy, continue to build a professional, intensive, lean, efficient and digital "five" operation system, build a sharing, service-oriented, innovative, technology-based, value-based "five-type" enterprise, and accelerate the goal of becoming a "world-class integrated information and communication infrastructure service provider, information application service provider with core competitiveness, and new energy application service provider with core competitiveness".
Swipe left and right to view the table of contents for Issue 7, 2024
Set the "State-owned Assets Report" to "Star"
Scan the code to enter the Mini Program
Read the electronic edition of the State-owned Assets Report