Mobile phone subscribers in Guangdong Province will no longer pay for incoming calls as of Thursday, thanks to a new billing scheme introduced by operators.

Subscribers will be jumping for joy at this news, but the caller-pays scheme is nothing unusual in other parts of the country. In recent years, operators in many regions, especially in small cities, have introduced de facto one-way charging schemes.

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Many of these moves were opposed by the regulators. The Ministry of Information Industry fined some defiant operators in a bid to block the introduction of one-way charging under a government-set system.

The introduction of one-way charging in Guangdong marks a milestone in deregulation of the industry, as it is the first time regulators have given a formal green light to the caller-pays scheme.

One-way charging has always been controversial. Consumers have been crying out for the scheme to be introduced, but the government was reluctant to relax its grip as it was concerned one-way charging could lead to losses for State-owned assets.

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