China Mobile to scrap domestic roaming fee for Beijing customers
China Mobile, the country's largest mobile-telephone operator, plans to drop the domestic roaming fee for Beijing subscribers as soon as next month, matching a similar offer by smaller rival China Unicom this month.
The roaming fee cut comes as the Ministry of Information Industry aims to reduce such charges as part of the reform of the telecommunications industry this year.
The customer service centre at Beijing Mobile, China Mobile's wholly owned subsidiary, yesterday said the company would make the new offer as part of the promotional plan for the Olympics Games next year.
The centre did not give a timetable for the offer, but company officials told the media that it would start next month.
The offer will also waive the monthly rental fee of 50 yuan.
China Unicom launched a similar plan this month, waiving the domestic roaming fee for packages that charge a voice tariff of at least 25 fen per minute.
Beijing Mobile's users are still charged at least 25 fen to 40 fen per minute when they make or receive calls in the capital city.
The charge is higher than the 15 fen to 35 fen charged for plans under the 'call-party-paid' packages the company offered early this month.
Beijing Mobile also slashed the international call tariff by 70 per cent to 86 per cent, depending on destinations, for all post-paid and pre-paid users.
Calls to Hong Kong and Macau are cut to as low as 80 fen per minute from 2.40 yuan.
The company will also offer the so-called international call-back roaming service, which gives users outside of the country a 54 per cent discount when making calls back to the mainland.
