CHINA is considering giving its telecommunications carriers a grace period of around two years before fully implementing a new pricing system that charges mobile phone users for outgoing calls only, the government said in a statement posted on its Web site Friday.
The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in the statement all new fee packages from telecom carriers must be based on “caller pays,” and users should be able to choose either one-way or two-way bills freely during the grace period.
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 MII and NDRC.
Mobile phone users in China now pay for both outgoing and incoming calls, though some operators are offering subscription packages that allow users to pay an extra monthly fee for a certain number of free incoming calls.
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.
Such fees now account for eight percent to 10 percent of mobile users’ total spending in China, compared with less than 5 percent in the United States.
“The conditions for promoting the ‘caller pays’ fee system in the entire country are basically ripe,” said the statement, which cited the MII, the telecom regulator.
The ministry, along with the NDRC, held a meeting Friday to solicit opinion from telecom carriers for the long-debated tariff reform, the statement said.
A clear policy has been suspended for some years partly due to concerns telecom carriers will be hurt by lower fee charges. But some analysts say the tariff adjustment will likely have a limited effect on the companies as lower prices would attract more subscribers.
Telecom carriers must fully disclose the fee structures of any new packages, the statement said.
(SD-Agencies)
