Newcomer China Railcom, facing stiff competition from dominant domestic fixed-line player China Telecom, has slashed its market-share target.
It now hopes to take between 2 and 3 per cent of the market in domestic services this year, compared with an original target of 5 to 10 per cent.
The new target was announced this week during the company's directors meeting in Beijing, Renmin Youdian Bao, the official newspaper of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), reported yesterday.
Officially inaugurated as a commercially operated telecommunications carrier in December 2000, China Railcom was formerly a private network of the Ministry of Railways, with lines running between the ministry and residents living near railway lines. Having been granted a fixed-line licence by the MII as an independent telecoms carrier, China Railcom launched commercial services in March last year.
But it had difficulties gaining subscribers in the first year of commercial operation.
It has been reported that China Railcom's Shanghai branch has signed-up only 8,000 fixed-line subscribers in the past four months since it first opened its system to the public, compared with its original target of 100,000.
After a hard first year, Railcom found the original high expectations too optimistic.