I felt a little relieved when I read on the China Daily website the PDF version of its April 22 front page lead story about Chinese President Hu Jintao's speech at Yale University.

I had written some paragraphs of that story and clicked "send" on my email at 1:27 pm, just a couple of hours before the newspaper went to print.

By 1:30 pm I was almost alone in the Sprague Hall of Yale University, where President Hu had made an impressive speech explaining that the mission to develop China is rooted in Chinese tradition and culture.

Before Hu arrived at the hall, I was worried about whether I could actually meet the deadline set at 1:30 am (Beijing time) in Beijing. I knew I had to do part of my report and get comments from a couple of people after Hu finished his speech, which was scheduled to end at 12:20 pm Eastern Daylight Saving Time in the United States, but 12:20 am Beijing time.

I was lucky to chat with a senior Yale University official responsible for setting up all the communication facilities in the area. Wireless access to the Internet should be available, he told me.

I tried and to my amazement I was able to communicate with my boss in Beijing. Despite the fact that President Hu stayed a little longer and left the hall around 1 pm, I was able to do my job.

All thanks to the availability of wireless access to the Internet in the hall, for which I didn't pay a penny.

In fact because of the Internet I am not only able to keep in touch with my colleagues in Beijing across the Pacific, but also to talk with my family almost every day.

I am not the only one making full use of the Internet while paying almost nothing for phone bills. A friend of mine in New York told me that he chatted with his mother via the Google Talk network for free or paid about 2 US cents a minute for an Internet phone call to Beijing or Hong Kong via Skype.

Advances in communications technologies, the creation of new software and the enhancement of existing software have enabled people around the world to connect with their colleagues at work and their families at home at will, while charges for the services have dramatically reduced.

But some people are unhappy. They represent the very few Chinese companies that have long monopolized home and international long-distance calls via landlines and wireless access in China. They charge much higher fees than their counterparts in many other countries. They even send out words to the effect that they may try to block or obstruct such easy and inexpensive connections.

But I believe their threats will not impede technological innovation and advances in the area of telecommunications.

Future communication as well as the media will be relayed largely from byte to byte. As Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief technical officer in Advanced Strategies and Policy, told me during an interview early this month at Microsoft, further innovations in communication and Internet technology and software will offer even better services for people in offices, at home or when travelling.

There is no way those Chinese companies will succeed in their attempts to hinder people's access to and use of easy and inexpensive communications technologies and software.

If these companies hope to retain their competitive edge, they must innovate and come up with better services, technologies and software to keep their old clients and attract new customers.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/27/2006 page4)