WHILE the China telecommunications industry has this year reduced fees for roaming calls, it has failed to introduced other planned policies such as a caller-pays billing system, an industry restructure and carrier switch with the same number.
This means there's still a long way to go before the Chinese telecommunications industry becomes open, transparent and fair.
In March, China cut the cost of out-of-town mobile phone calls by up to 80 percent in response to user complaints.
People who traveled around China had been charged long-distance and roaming fees for making mobile calls, which can reach up to 1.50 yuan (21 US cents) a minute - about 10 times the cost of a local call.
Now it charges users 0.60 yuan a minute for making calls and 0.40 yuan for incoming calls.
"China is the only country in the world to charge user-roaming fees across one network over different provinces," said Sandy Shen, a telecommunications analyst at Gartner Inc, a United States-based IT research firm.
"It's a natural process but the regulator needs to do more," said Shen.
China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscriber, has dominated the market as the "mobile substitution" in China, industry insiders said.
In 2007, China Mobile Group's revenue reached 356.96 billion yuan, close to the combined revenue of the three other major telecommunications carriers, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Netcom. China Mobile's profit was 87.06 billion yuan, which surpassed the three others' combined profit of 45.09 billion yuan.
"It's an irresistible trend as mobile communications will replace the positions of fixed-line (communications)," Tebon Securities said.
China's fixed-line phone user base dropped last year for the first time since 1968, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information.
"China Mobile will enlarge the advantage gap in future unless the industry is restructured," Tebon said. "Even it happened, China Mobile would lead the market for a long period."
The restructure, which means merging China Unicom's code division multiple assess (CDMA) with China Telecom and China Unicom's global system for mobile communications (GSM) business with China Netcom, is expected to be announced soon, analysts said.
Olympics in 3G
After the restructure, fixed-line phone carriers will have a mobile license on 3G and be able to directly compete with China Mobile.
China Mobile also started trial commercial 3G services based on home-grown technology last month in 10 cities nationwide in preparation for the Beijing Olympic Games.
"China Mobile can get 3G operation experiences and occupy a major stake of the Olympic communications market through the services," said Fu Liang, an analyst for Wanfang Consulting.
"Other carriers have to wait for a mobile license or 3G license," Fu added.
China Unicom, the country's smaller carrier, can't compete with China Mobile. The top band of China Mobile users have attributes of high consumption ability and are regarded as the high-end users. China Unicom, as a newcomer, can't touch them as they are not willing to change their phone numbers, according to China Unicom.
"China Mobile has a solid high-end user group and we can compete with them through price campaign. That helps us get low-end users but they won't bring us profit," said a China Unicom official who declined to be identified.
Other regulations to be launched
Online video Websites
The country has required new private video sharing Websites cooperate with state-owned Websites. The Websites, including Tudou.com, have to get licenses from government to continue operation.
Key industries
China will support industries such as semiconductor, software and flat panel displays. Firms can apply for government funds for research. China is expected to publish more favorable tax policies in the semiconductor sector.
Handset
China has launched a unified charger for different-branded mobile phones, aimed at protecting the environment. China plans to launch a new contact list standard, which allows users to store contact information in different phones.
Electronic waste
China has established an electronic waste list. The next step is to prohibit firms using the dangerous materials listed in their products.