The long-awaited reform of mobile phone roaming tariffs
yesterday got a kick-start that could benefit the nation's 539
million cellphone subscribers.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the
Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said yesterday they would
hold public hearings this month to discuss a new scheme to lower
the caps on roaming fees.
Government-set roaming tariffs have long been a target of
criticism in China. Although a de facto caller-pays scheme has
replaced the two-way charging system - in which both caller and
receiver pay for calls - the roaming fees have remained largely
unchanged for years.
Currently, China Mobile users typically pay 0.60 yuan per minute
to receive calls if they travel to another city.
Despite growing calls for roaming fees to be reduced or even
scrapped, there was little action until last May, when the NDRC and
the MII held an opinion poll.
The poll found 64 percent of respondents want roaming fees
scrapped.
According to Guotai Junan Securities research, the roaming fees
could be cut by as much as 47 percent.
Reform could have a bigger impact on China Mobile, the larger of
the two cellular operators, as roaming fees are one of its major
revenue sources.
Li Gang, vice-president of China Unicom and former chief of
China Mobile's Guangdong subsidiary, reportedly said China Mobile's
revenue from roaming fees was 49 billion yuan in 2005, while Unicom
generated only billions of yuan.
That accounted for about one-fifth of China Mobile's total
revenue of 243 billion yuan in 2005. In 2006, its total revenue
swelled to 295.4 billion yuan with a net profit of 66 billion
yuan.
A China Mobile spokesperson said the company has received a
government notice about the public hearings and is ready to "do
what is required by the government", without further comment on the
roaming tariffs reform.
Lu Tingjie, a professor at the Beijing University of Post and
Telecommunications, said roaming fees in China are "unjustifiably
high" and lowering price caps is in line with the global trend.
The European Commission has been pushing for roaming price cuts
for cross-border travelers within Europe.
But Lu said it's unreasonable to completely scrap the fees, as
the roaming service still involves investment by operators to
expand network capacity.
China had 539 million mobile phone subscribers by November,
China Mobile Ltd had 363 million, while Hong Kong-listed China
Unicom Co Ltd reported 118 million GSM subscribers and 40.7 million
CDMA users.
(China Daily January 3, 2008)
