China's telcoms heed premier Li Keqiang's call to slash internet fees

Access to the internet is about to get cheaper - and hopefully faster - for millions of mainlanders with the launch of new charges from the country's big three mobile and telecom operators.

Under the plans announced yesterday, China Unicom will cut mobile data fees by 20 per cent, China Mobile will reduce charges by more than 35 per cent, and China Telecom will slash unit bandwidth fees by 35 per cent.

The overhaul is in response to Premier Li Keqiang's call on Wednesday to ramp up internet speeds and cut charges for subscribers to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

Li said providers should aim to increase speeds for urban users by 40 per cent.

"China is the world's biggest mobile phone market, but internet speeds are ranked worse than 80th in the world. Our information infrastructure is backward," he said.

He said the government could not determine internet fees but if companies cut charges, it would boost the use of the services, increasing the operators' overall profits.

Shang Bing, deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, yesterday said the aim was to ensure that all users had access to 4G mobile services. "Through the efforts of all parties, everyone can enjoy a much higher level of broadband service," Shang said.