Little Smart Plans to Expand in Beijing

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 10, 2003

Little Smart Plans to Expand in Beijing

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Beijing Communication Corp is planning to introduce Little Smart wireless phone service into Beijing's urban areas on May 17, World Telecom Day, according to Lin Ming, vice-general manager of Beijing Communication Corp, a subsidiary of China Netcom Communication Group Corp.

"We are building up related networks and facilities in the downtown areas and will start the service on May 17," said Lin yesterday on the sidelines of a press conference held by China Netcom.

"By introducing the service, we are offering our customers more choices and related promotional activities will be launched on the same day," he added.

First debuting in Huairou, a suburb of Beijing on March 10, the company launched the phone service in Beijing's 10 suburbs over past month.

Analysts believe that, with the launch of the campaign to promote Little Smart in downtown areas, the company is now ready to invade the capital city's lucrative mobile market.

"We have recruited more than 10,000 Little Smart subscribers so far in the suburban areas," Lin said.

Also called Xiaolingtong, Little Smart is built onto a city's existing fixed-line phone network and offers low per-minute rates and one-way charges.

"We will first launch the service in places around residential areas, schools, universities and government buildings," he said.

However, he did not provide a timetable for the availability of the service in all the city's eight urban districts.

"I don't think the service will have a big impact on mobile communications as Little Smart is only an expansion and supplement of our fixed-line service," he said.

But analysts believe that, with its comparatively low telecommunication fees, Little Smart is likely to lead to a restructuring of the mobile telecommunications market in Beijing.

The communication fees for Little Smart in Beijing was set at 0.11 yuan (1.3 US cent) per minute, comparing to 0.40 yuan (4.8 US cent) per minute for GSM phones.

At a press conference yesterday, China Netcom announced that the company is going to add a new dial-up number "16900" for Internet connection, besides the former two numbers "163" and "169."

Then, starting from May 1, Internet users in Beijing will only be able to log onto the Internet via "16900", the company said.

Also, by the end of June, "16900" will be the only dial-up number for Internet access in northern China's 10 provinces, said Huang Qingxia, vice-general manager of Internet Business Department of China Netcom.

At that time, the number "169" will be abandoned and "163" will be allocated to its rival China Telecom, she said.

According to her, the company is building up Jiuzhou Online Service Co to focus on value-added Internet applications to enhance its Internet-related businesses.

"We are registering the company now and will take the controlling share of 40 per cent," she said. (China Daily News)

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