China Railway Telecom (China Railcom) - the country's second-largest fixed-line telecoms operator - is set to offer services at prices 10 to 15 per cent lower than those of dominant competitor China Telecommunications.
But analysts do not expect this will post any immediate threat to China Telecom or other smaller fixed-line competitors such as China Unicom.
The industry watchdog, the Ministry of Information Industry, had recently given its pricing guidelines to China Railcom, the official People's Daily reported yesterday, citing an unnamed source from its Guangdong branch.
Under the guidelines, China Railcom had been allowed to offer local dialling and mainland long-distance services, at 10 per cent and 15 per cent higher or lower than China Telecom's tariffs, respectively, the report said.
Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia analyst Edison Lee said he did not see any major impact in the short term on China Telecom or China Unicom, as China Railcom's expansion of its nationwide network was incomplete.
'Railcom's last-mile [backbone to household] connections are still not well developed,' he said.