Phone Card

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said they would hold public hearings this month to discuss a new scheme to lower roaming fees.

Government-set roaming tariffs have long been a target of criticism in China.

Although a de facto caller-pays scheme has replaced the two-way charging system— in which both caller and receiver pay for calls — the roaming fees have remained largely unchanged for years.

Currently, China Mobile users typically pay RMB0.60 a minute to receive calls if they travel to another city.

Last Maythe NDRC and the MII held an opinion poll.

The poll found 64% of respondents want roaming fees scrapped.

According to Guotai Junan Securities research, the roaming fees could be cut by as much as 47%.

Reform would have a bigger impact on China Mobile, the larger of the two cellular operators, as roaming fees are one of its major revenue sources.

Li Gang, vice-president of China Unicom and former chief of China Mobile’s Guangdong subsidiary, reportedly said China Mobile’s revenue from roaming fees was RMB49 billion($6.71 billion) in 2005, while Unicom generated only billions of yuan.

That accounted for about one-fifth of China Mobile’s total revenue of RMB243 billion in 2005. In 2006, its total revenue was RMB295.4 billion with a net profit of RMB66 billion.

Lu Tingjie, a professor at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, said roaming fees in China are ‘unjustifiably high’ and lowering price is in line with the global trend.
Source: Jongo News

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Google’s familiar brand name may make its Android mobile platform the system of choice across the sophisticated Asia-Pacific region. On the other hand the illustrations make it look like something my mother threatened me with if I did not behave.

In Japan and probably in China — mobile devices have become the way you get on to the Internet. And thus it may be Google’s upcoming mobile phone OS may be perfectly suited to users in this region.

Aloysius Choong, IDC Asia-Pacific senior analyst for personal systems, said, quite logically, the the main attraction Android holds for Asia could initially be the Google brand name.

But is if it is as ‘open, flexible and extensible’ as we are promised it may prove to be very attractive to an increasingly-sophisticated mobile audience in the region.

Aloysius Choong said, ‘Asian users typically have higher demands. As we move toward 3.5G, especially with fixed-rate data service plans, more will get onboard the mobile Internet platform. The more you use your phone to access the Internet, the more you expect in terms of extensibility, power and customizability.’

He actually quite possibly speaks like that. Analysts get into the way of it. Note also he did not mention that China does not even have 3G as yet although it should be by April next year.

Google’s extensive network of developers through the Open Handset Alliance — established by Google build and support the platform — may therefore, to use an analyst term, ‘maximize the experience.’

Google’s mobile platforms director Andy Rubin, one of the first few who worked on Android, said in a previous report that he expects the first Android devices to be mid- to high-end phones ‘because of the data access capabilities of the platform’.

In which case there might be a slight problem because the massive growth area at the moment it in the low cost phones.

Consumers are expected to receive the first Android-enabled device by the middle of this year. HTC, one of four handset developers in the Open Handset Alliance, is likely to be the first developer to ship an Android device.
Source: Business Week

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