More than 467 million Chinese mobile phone users will be able to
enjoy free incoming calls within two years, regulators said on
Friday.
In addition, the roaming fee, which is more than six times the
cost of intracity-mobile communications, is expected to be
regulated and probably dropped, according to the Ministry of
Information Industry and the National Development and Reform
Commission.
The "one-way charge" will become a nationwide policy, and
average telecommunications fees will continue to drop, the MII said
in a statement on its Website.
"It is a natural step to allow free incoming calls as Western
carriers launched such services several years ago," said Yang
Peifang, an expert at the China Academy of Telecommunications
Research under the MII. "Chinese carriers have grown strong, and
they can accommodate the change."
Two years ago, free incoming calls were forbidden as they
threatened the income of the state-owned carriers, or "state
assets."
China Mobile and China Unicom, the country's two mobile
carriers, declined to comment on the issue. But they have already
launched package plans that greatly reduce charges for incoming
calls. A Shanghai Mobile plan, for instance, charges a flat monthly
fee of 6 yuan (78 US cents) for unlimited incoming calls. China's
telecommunications fees dropped 11.5 percent on average last year,
MII Minister Xi Guohua said recently.
Such fees now account for eight percent to 10 percent of
people's total spending in China, compared with less than five
percent in the United States.
The roaming fee (0.60 yuan a minute), along with long-distance
call costs, amount to 1.3 yuan a minute, almost 10 times the cost
of local communications.
"The high price is without reason, as the telecoms' costs for
cross-province calls are much less," Kan Kaili, a professor at the
Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, said in a
previous interview. "The fees can be cut at least 0.20 yuan a
minute."
The government is considering a price ceiling for roaming fees
to better regulate the sector, which has generated complaints from
customers and the Beijing Consumers Association, according to MII's
statement.
The changes will push the carriers to transform their business
models, industry insiders said.
Carriers will no longer be able to depend on income from voice
services. Instead, they will have to develop income from data
services, which will be especially important in the coming
third-generation telecommunications market, Norson Telecom
Consulting said in a recent note.?
(Shanghai Daily April 28, 2007)