Telecom policy aims to spur innovation
Print Edition
CHINA’S decision to allow state-owned telecommunication carriers to set prices and packages will spur innovation and data-based services but the average telecom costs won’t fall in the short term, industry officials said yesterday.
The policy, effective from last Saturday, will create more room for the big-three state-owned telcos — China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom — to unveil new 3G or 4G packages alongside traditional voice and text message services to more than 1.1 billion users in the country, the world’s biggest phone market, they said.
Market forces will determine pricing but the telcos are barred from giving excessive discounts or placing misleading advertisements, the regulators — the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission — said in a joint statement on Friday.
The freedom to set prices applies to general telecom services, voice services, text messages, and broadband, the statement said.
China Mobile, the world’s biggest telco by users, said the move will “be beneficial to the development of the company and consumers.”
The policy will also allow the 11 “virtual carriers” the same freedom to innovate their packages, said analysts.
China issued telecom service licenses to the 11 private firms, including online retailer 360buy.com, game developer Snail, handset distributor Tianyin and BusAP, a media provider for public transport, at the end of last year to attract private capital and boost competition and service quality.
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