(ECNS) – The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is researching the possibility of canceling roaming fees, which could benefit at least 600 million Chinese users.
Wen Ku, a spokesman for the ministry, revealed the latest development at a press conference on Monday.
Deng Zhongliang, a professor at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told China News Service that there is no technical difficulty in canceling roaming fees. Roaming involves very low additional costs for telecom companies when a cell phone user travels within China.
Deng said the majority of costs for the telecom industry are from infrastructure construction. With the improvement of such facilities, it is feasible to cancel domestic roaming fees.
Deng attributed the delayed plan to cancel roaming fees to disagreements in management models and issues related to settlement.
China News Service has found that all fourth-generation (4G) mobile packages offered by China's three major telecom carriers do not charge domestic inter-city roaming fees, while some of the 3G services and most 2G services still charge roaming fees. At the end of May, China had more than 600 million 2G users.
China Mobile, the nation's largest telecom carrier by subscriber number, said it will stick to its announced timetable in regards to upping access speeds and reducing service fees. The company plans to cut data service charges by at least 35 percent by the end of the year.
Also at Monday's press conference, Zhang Feng, chief engineer at the MIIT, said the ministry will make sure telecom companies honor their promises to speed up Internet access and cut service charges.
The ministry aims to reduce fees for both mobile data and fixed broadband services by 30 percent year-on-year by the end of 2015, Deng said.
Investment in telecom facilities construction is estimated to reach 435 billion yuan ($70.06 billion) this year, up 10 percent from last year, it was added.
The move will help lower costs for Internet-based innovation and entrepreneurship, Zhang said.
China expects to see more than 10 million people employed by or running Internet-based startup companies this year, the ministry said.
