The Chinese government on Tuesday held a public hearing on
cutting mobile phone domestic roaming charges, but the final
pricing scheme remained suspended due to divided opinions.
A total of 18 representatives, including five consumers, five
telecommunication operator officials and three experts made
submissions at the hearing.
Two plans, which suggested price cuts ranging from 14.9 percent
to 63 percent, were under discussion.
Plan A proposes cutting the 0.2 yuan (less than 0.03 US dollars)
per minute surcharge for roaming services, while plan B also scraps
the surcharge and proposes a charge of 0.7 yuan per minute for
making calls and 0.3 yuan for receiving calls for all users.
Shen Changzheng, who represented mobile phone users, said it was
unreasonable to set service charge standards on the basis of
administrative divisions.
"Roaming charges should be scrapped. Instead, an equal charge
should be imposed for domestic roaming services and local services
on a step-by-step basis," he said.
Most of the China's 539 million mobile subscribers pay from 33
to 50 percent more for calls made or received on their cell phones
when they travel to other provinces.
Zhu Jinlin, from the National Committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference, said the fee reduction proposed
by plan B was too small.
Profit margins for both China Mobile and China Unicom should be
reduced to 15 percent, but the mobile phone industry in China had
19-percent net profits, he added. "Telecommunication operators
should not be huge profit seekers."
China has two mobile phone service providers -- China Mobile and
China Unicom. Increasing numbers of mobile phone users in China
accuse them of reaping handsome profits by charging monopolistic
prices.
Lu Wenchang, from China Mobile, argued that his company had
reduced call charges by 62.1 percent in the last five years and
that it was impossible to provide mobile services in such a vast
country with no costs.
The average roaming cost of China Mobile and China Unicom was
0.0485 yuan in 2006, said Huang Xinyan, senior manager with the
China Audit Certified Public Accountants.
Ding Ming, from China Unicom, said the ceiling on roaming
services fees should be higher than that of local services as the
cost was higher.
"Only 2.5 percent of China Unicom's mobile subscribers
frequently use roaming services," he said. "That means only a small
fraction of our customers can benefit from a fee reduction."
Zhu Zhengwu, from China Telecom, said plan B, which would no
longer charge subscribers for long-distance calls when they were
outside home provinces, may lead to people giving up fixed lines
and turning to China Mobile for long-distance calls.
"The plan could help China Mobile monopolize the market with the
substitution of fixed lines with mobile phones, which as a result
will hurt the consumers' interests," he warned.
He said the government should provide the mobile license to the
fixed lines operators.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2008)
