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Major telecom companies in China， including China Telecom and China Mobile， have set deadlines to implement a new fee regime， Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said last Friday.
According to China Daily， the fee adjustments， authorized by MII at year-end，had been expected to go into effect since January 1. But MII said companies are allowed to set their own timetables.
The new regime will cut rates by more than half for long distance calls， Internet services and leased lines.
China Telecom has cut least line rents from 4， 500 yuan（US$542） to 2，000 yuan（US$240）， effective after January 1. The company said it would slash long-distance charges by half after January 21. All provinces must implement changes for local calls and Internet dial-up telephone charges before May 21.
China Mobile also sets January 21 as the date to carry out long-distance fee adjustment. Thereafter， mobile phone users will be billed 0.40 yuan a minute， plus 0.07 yuan every six seconds for domestic long-distance calls.
China Railway Telecom， which was set up this month， said it will carry out the new regime on March 1.
(Xinhua 01/16/2001)
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