China's 460 million cellphone users can expect to see their
bills shrink, with regulators and major operators in talks to scale
back telecommunication fees.
The new fee policies will make incoming calls free and reduce
costs for inter-province calls and for retaining a suspended
number, said the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and the
National Development and Reform Commission (NCRC) on Saturday.
Cellphone users in China currently have to subscribe to "fee
packages" and pay in advance for free incoming calls.
Inter-province calls will be evaluated and the new fees
published in December, and the 20-yuan (US$2.6) charge paid by
users each month to retain a suspended number will also be cut,
according to the two ministries.
Analysts say that China Mobile's dominance in the cellphone
market has made it difficult to reduce fees.
China Mobile is the leading telecoms company in China with a
44-percent market share and that share is growing. 66 percent of
new subscribers chose China Mobile in 2006, and that figure rose to
78 percent to 80 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Lower charges for cellphone users highlight the need for deeper
reforms in the telecoms sector, said He Xia, an MII senior
engineer.
Operators must find ways to lower costs via technological
innovations to cope with lower revenues from phone users, said He,
and fixed-line operators -- for whom lower cellphone charges are a
genuine threat -- should be entitled to 3G licenses to ensure that
the market remains balanced.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2007)