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China plans to set price caps and cut domestic mobile roaming fees this year, said an official of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) on Tuesday.

 

Zhu Jun, an official in charge of regulating the cost of telecommunications services, said this at a development plan and policy briefing session in Beijing.

 

The high roaming fees, two-way charging mechanism and high monthly rental charges have all drawn complaints from Chinese consumers.

 

"Since cross-province calls have to be transferred from one local operator to another, roaming fees are reasonable," Zeng Jianqiu, a professor with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said.

 

"As technology improvement has lowered operational costs, cutting domestic roaming prices has become a worldwide trend," he said, "and developed countries in Europe, North America and Asia have already started the process."

 

Some technology experts argue that roaming calls actually incur almost no extra cost for operators.

 

"China cannot eliminate roaming fees immediately," Zeng said, "as it will put fixed-line companies in a tight corner since mobile calls cost even less than fixed-lines."

 

Data from the MII show that while the domestic revenue share of major fixed-line players China Telecom and China Netcom has fallen, China Mobile's share shot up to hit 42.4 percent last April.

 

To ensure a steady development of the telecommunications market, China can only cut the roaming price step by step, Zeng said, adding that the country should allow fixed-line companies to join the mobile market and vice versa.

 

MII data shows China had 461 million mobile users at the end oflast year, 17 percent up on the 2005 total.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2007)