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ISPs in Shanghai Busy with Price Wars
Two years ago, Wang Huaiyu, a netizen in Shanghai, had to brave a high access charge of up to 20 yuan £šUS$2.41£© per hour to browse the Internet, an amount equal to the cost of a small box of chocolates or 10 bottles of Coca Cola, according to China Daily.
But during this Spring Festival season, Wang is likely to be flooded with a variety of discount offers and coupons for Internet connection fees as cheap as 1 yuan£šUS$0.12£©per hour.
A price war is looming in Shanghai as Internet service providers (ISPs£©scramble for a big piece of the action at a time which is often a golden period for business.
One of the largest ISPs in China, the Beijing-based 263 Group announced it would issue an Internet access card for customers to roam the net, giving them up to 15 days of free access.
ISP operators funded by China's four giant telecom carriers China Telecom, China Unicom, Jitong and Netcom as well as privately funded small ISPs have also joined in the fight for customers.
A telecom charge readjustment package recently announced by the Ministry of Information Industry intensified the competition.
The country's top IT overseer said it would cut telecom charges by 40 per cent.
"ISPs now are trying hard to cut down on prices in order to enlarge their customer bases," said Wu Jingxiong, an engineer of Legend's East China Branch in charge of ISP service.
"With Internet surfing becoming hot in Shanghai, which has a rapidly expanding online community, offering Internet access has led to an intense fight," said Gao Qing, an engineer of Shanghai Online, the largest ISP in Shanghai, funded by Shanghai Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom.
The new technology boom, especially in the broadband area, also fuels competition.
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