Aussie IT reseller puts China plans on hold

Ethel Lau, company secretary at Byte Powered Group (BPG) Limited, said the service provider will see an impact on its recent expansion plans into China.

“The Group is heavily reliant upon the timely obtainment of various government approvals and it has become apparent that some disruption is being experienced due to most [Chinese] government departments being busy attending to earthquake related matters,” said Lau.

Byte Power had planned to install around 3000 e-kiosks, which supply Byte Power’s range of on/off line services, around Chonqiang City. The core system was completed with BPG providing all the planned services and content via a dedicated network.

However BPG has so-far rolled out 19 kiosks in Chonqiang City and a further 26 completed and waiting final government approvals. Receipt of site licenses approvals are taking longer than anticipated, which in turn has had an “impact on revenue growth with the number of operational e-kiosks at this time being lowered than expected,” claimed Lau.

BPG has also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with China Netcom to work on pilot sites. Under this agreement China Netcom will manage/lease/run a number of e-kiosk sites directly and provide access to its products through the e-kiosk network.

“It is intended that China Netcom will purchase external advertising space, on-line advertising space and time on the e-kiosk LED screens to promote its products and services,” said Lau.

In Australia BPG’s list of clients include Boeing, the Department of Defence, Telstra, the NSW and Metropolitan Fire Brigade's, Shell Company of Australia, the Queensland Performing Arts Complex, the CSIRO, Toys ‘R’ Us, Nike Australia,Big W, K Mart, Pioneer Australia, Revlon and L’Oreal.