Roaming fees a drag on development

A signboard of 4G is seen at a branch of China Mobile in Shanghai, Dec 28, 2013. [Photo/IC]

On Satuaday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it was canceling roaming fees for mobile phones in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, to support their integration. On Tuesday, one of the three State-owned telecommunication companies said it had already canceled its roaming charges, while the other two said they were ready to do so and were just waiting for the ministry's final notice. Comments:

Hopefully, the roaming fees collected after Saturday will be refunded to customers after the telecommunication companies receive the ministry's final notice. If not, it will harm the credibility of the State-owned enterprises and the government.

Security Times, Aug 4

The government should think of opening up the telecommunication market to more players. To benefit customers, it should rely on market competition, rather than government decisions on a case-by-case basis in a monopoly market dominated by three "national team members". Abolishing the roaming fees in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province is a good beginning for comprehensive reform of the telecommunication system.

Changchun Daily, Aug 4

If the roaming fees in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province can be exempted to support the integration strategy, the charges in other city clusters, such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, should also be abolished. In fact, the roaming fees, collected by the monopoly State-owned telecommunication companies, should be abolished nationwide. It is not a problem technically or legally, but a problem of the interests of different departments. China is much more developed than 20 years ago, when mobile phones appeared, and the government should ease the cost of communication, rather than aggravating the burden, which is actually a hindrance to economic development.

Xinhuanet.com, Aug 4

This is a big, yet overdue, bonus for the hundreds of thousands of people who work in Beijing and live in Hebei province, such as the Yanjiao community to the northeast of Beijing. Hunan, Guizhou and Henan provinces, along with the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, have already exempted customers from paying some roaming fees. To push the envelope nationwide, the central authority needs to do more as a coordinator.

People.com.cn, Aug 4