Four Questions on Adjustment Scheme of Telecomm Charges

The newly-born Scheme of the adjustment of China's telecom charges has become a focus of many members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). As sources say, the NPC and CPPCC at different levels have received over 120 proposals and schemes on the adjustment of telecom charges in recent years.

Latest queries are from Fang Tingyu, member of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee and professor of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. He raised four questions to the Scheme in a written speech at the fourth session of the Ninth National Committee of the CPPCC.

Question one: is China's telecom charge really low?

Fang Tingyu gave his experience in the United States as a comparison. Calculated on the basis of US$800 of per-capita income by Chinese citizens, the fee of urban calls is on the high side unquestionably.

Question two: who benefits the most from the adjustment?

The adjustment of telecom charges introduces rise in prices of urban calls and cutting in fees of long-distance calls. Fang quoted reports by media that 55 percent felt nothing substantial and half of the citizens expect the urban calls charges to be lowered.

Question three: should installation fee and monthly rental be collected?

Survey in 10 big cities in China shows that 100ге of the users think that the installation fee which have been collected should be returned by different means. Up to 79 percent of the users agree that the monthly rental is inappropriate. Fang asked, shall we collect fees for pipeline and lines from other public utility since we ask users to pay these charges?

Question four: how much on earth is the cost of telecom services in China?

China Telecom claimed that the adjustment in charges will deprive it of 30 billion yuan in income. However, as sources show, the cost of domestic long-distance IP calls is only 0.08 yuan per minute (0.3 yuan per minute collected); the cost of international calls is 0.6 yuan per minute (4.8 yuan per minute collected). Huge profits come from long-distance calls. Professor Fang queried here why is loss always reported in urban calls since China's telecom cost is about the same with that of the US?

Fang also appealed that it is extremely urgent for China's telecom industry to improve its service quality and bring down its costs to confront the challenges raised by the WTO.

Fang's speech spoke out what was in the minds of the common people. Nevertheless, telecom management departments also have embarrassments.

Zhang Chunjiang, vice-minister of the Information Industry, recently reiterated that the government has strong determination to break the monopoly in China's telecomm industry. However, the coordination between the immediate interests of common people and the long-term development of the industry must be taken into consideration. For the enterprises which have occupied a large proportion of the market, Zhang said, adjustment in the service charges is made just to break the monopoly. Otherwise, once they take the lead in cutting down the charges, giving no chances for rising enterprises to hold up their heads.

Carefulness and cautions are needed in ropewalking between common people and enterprises. However, it doesn't mean to keep its mouth shut. The focus on the adjustment in telecom charges this time proves the expectation of the public towards a higher transparency in it.



By PD Online Staff Member Du Minghua


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