A monopoly of the telecommunications industry held by the Information Industry Ministry has resulted in poor service and unreasonably high charges, a newspaper reported.
The Guangming Daily quoted a columnist as saying the industry was in such disarray 'there is no alternative but change'.
The running costs for each minute of inner-city fixed line calls was between 0.01 to 0.02 yuan, but customers were charged 0.3 yuan, the paper said.
Customers also had to pay an 'initial installation fee' of several thousand yuan and 'monthly fees', usually less than 100 yuan (HK$93), for a fixed line phone service.
Charges were so high many households in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, never used their telephones for outside calls, the paper said.
The paper told of an enterprise in Jiangxi's provincial capital Nanchang that wanted to set up an Internet site.