China’s three telecom operators announced Monday to cancel charging fees for domestic long-distance calls and roaming starting in October this year, in response to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s call in a government work report.
China Unicom, China Mobile, and China Telecom made the announcement at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on Monday in Beijing.
Currently, mobile phone users can face large bills for long-distance calls within China. Data roaming, or using mobile data in places other than where the phone is registered, also demands extra fees.
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In addition to the cancellation of domestic roaming fees starting October 1, the cost of international calls will also be lowered, said China Mobile. The roaming fees in 64 countries along the Belt and Road Initiative will be chopped to 0.99 yuan (0.14 US dollars) per minute.
China Unicom also plans to double 4G internet speeds from 300 Mbps to 600 Mbps. The company also aims to expand broadband so as to support innovation in the internet industry with a broader information superhighway.
China Telecom, for its part, pledged to invest 100 billion yuan (14.5 billion US dollars) to make an intelligent high speed network. The company vowed to increase investments in optical networks and to further promote overall coverage of it for rural access in southern part of China by the end of this year.
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In addition, small and medium enterprises can also expect a drop in broadband fees this year, said China Telecom.
With roaming fees to be canceled overall, the key players in China’s telecommunication sector, China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom, are expected to see significant drops in their profit margin.
As for how much exactly, China Mobile’s CEO Li responded, saying, “I cannot tell you the exact profit margin, but this is based on many different variables. What I can say is roaming fees make up 8-10 percent of our revenue, so this will have a negative impact on our business.”
(CGTN’s Grace Shaw also contributed to this story.)
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