Mobile phone users in China will only need to pay five yuan
(about 65 US cents) a month from July 1 to retain a mobile phone
number during the suspension of service, instead of the current fee
of 20 yuan, according to the Ministry of Information Industry
(MII).
Other services used during inactive periods will be free of
charge, said the ministry.
China's mobile phone subscription has been soaring for years,
with new subscribers hitting 6.5 million per month in the first
quarter of 2007. Yet, high communication fees remain a headache for
the country's 480 million mobile users, whose complaints have
pushed regulators into talks with major operators into scaling back
fees.
In April, the MII and the National Development and Reform
Commission (NCRC) announced new fee policies due in December that
are expected to make incoming calls free and reduce costs for
inter-provincial calls.
Mobile phone users in China currently have to subscribe to "fee
packages" and pay in advance for incoming calls.
Inter-province calls will be evaluated and the new fees
published in December, according to the two ministries.
Analysts say that China Mobile's dominance in the mobile phone
market has made it difficult to reduce fees. The leading
telecommunications company had gained a 44 percent market share by
last April, a figure which is still on the rise.
Lower charges for mobile phone users highlight the need for a
deeper reform of the telecoms sector, said He Xia, a MII senior
engineer.
(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2007)