Segmentation in the management of the phone industry is the
reason for the difficulty in lowering mobile roaming fees, says an
article in People's Daily. The following is an
excerpt:
New moves have been made to cut mobile roaming fees, which have
attracted wide public attention. According to the new schemes made
public recently by the National Development and Reform Commission
and the Ministry of Information Industry, mobile roaming fees will
see cuts ranging from 13.33 percent to 80 percent for different
call types. The new schemes will be submitted to a hearing to be
held on January 22.
However, judging from the content of the schemes, consumers do
not seem to be very satisfied - they have focused on the real cost
of mobile roaming fees and the narrow range of the price cuts.
Is it really difficult to estimate the cost of mobile roaming
fees? It is already an open secret that the cost is almost
zero.
Some believe that the difficulty in cutting fees is because of
the monopoly - price cuts can be achieved if more mobile phone
service providers are allowed.
But the existence of mobile roaming fees is not because of the
shortage of competition, but because of the segmentation within the
industry. Different regions in China have different charge levels
for mobiles. Phone cards can be sold across different regions if
there are no roaming fees, which will cause chaos within the
operators.
News from Guangdong province has raised people's expectations.
Guangdong will strengthen punishment on illegal pricing, and mobile
roaming fees are on the list. The fees are also expected to be
scrapped later this year.
The action taken by a local government indicates that the
authorities can overcome the barriers to reducing or eliminating
mobile roaming fees.
(China Daily January 16, 2008)