Source: CCTV.com
01-03-2008 11:10
China's telecoms authorities have announced a public hearing to discuss lowering charges for long-distance mobile phone calls. The hearing will be held at the end of January with representatives of consumers, experts and mobile carriers discussing lowering the ceiling on roaming fees.
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| China''s telecoms authorities have announced a public hearing to discuss lowering charges for long-distance mobile phone calls. |
Chinese mobile carriers now charge post-pay users 0.6 yuan and pre-pay users 0.8 yuan per minute as a cross-provincial roaming fee. The Ministry of Information Industry says an upper limit will be set after the conference. Insiders predict that the cap will be between 0.2 yuan and 0.4 yuan per minute.
Chinese mobile phone subscribers have complained about high roaming fees for a long time, so mobile carriers have promoted various monthly packages to lower actual roaming charges. But customers want more benefits.
One Beijing customer said "There are so many packages, it's hard to choose. I hope the roaming fees will be cut lower than those packages."
Many people are calling for the abolishment of roaming fees because the cost of providing roaming services is tiny. Industry insiders point out that mobile operators spend only 0.02 yuan per minute providing roaming services, making it the most profitable sector for them.
Kan Kaili, Professor of Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications said "For example, when a Beijing customer goes to Shanghai and uses his mobile phone, the Beijing based mobile operator has to exchange some information with its Shanghai counterpart to provide service to this customer. That is why they charge roaming fees. But the cost is actually very, very, small almost negligible. I think the roaming charges are not reasonable and should be cancelled."
Telecom operators began charging roaming fees in the mid 1990s when China's mobile telecommunications were just launched. In 2005, China issued a policy to set ceilings for roaming fees to prevent unreasonably high charges.
Editor:Xiong Qu
