BEIJING: President Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng have approved a 10-point law which makes state radio management committees the only bodies with authority to allocate radio frequencies, the China Daily reported yesterday.
Telecommunications, mobile communications, radio and television, radar navigation, remote sensing and remote control, and radio astronomy were covered by the new regulations, the newspaper said.
Radio stations must obtain approval from the committees and observe the rules.
It quoted Posts and Telecommunications Minister Wu Jichuan as urging the banning of all unapproved stations and frequencies.
A nationwide increase in the number of radio stations, and pager and telephone systems appeared to have convinced the government of the need to strengthen its grip over the ill-regulated sector, political analysts said.
By the end of last year, about 2.5 million radio stations were operating in China and the number of mobile telephones surpassed 460,000 in August this year, the newspaper said.