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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: foundation who wrote (14589)	9/4/2001 8:55:51 AM
From: foundation	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196641

China Ministry says no one-way billing this year By Reuters staff Tuesday, September 04, 2001 China's telecoms regulator has indicated one-way mobile billing will not be adopted this year despite media reports that China Mobile (HK) has formed such a plan. "It will not happen before the end of this year," said Wang Lijian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Wang was restating the ministry's long-held position on calling-party-pays, a billing system that if introduced would end the current practice in which both parties are billed for a mobile phone conversation. "Any changes to mobile tariffs will be decided by the government," Wang told Reuters. The ministry's powerful chief, Wu Jichuan, said last year calling-party-pays would not be implemented within the next two years. Still, some analysts have questioned the ministry's ability to control prices in provinces and cities far from the capital. China Mobile stock fell more than seven percent on Monday after the 21st Century Business Herald reported the firm had sealed a plan to introduce one-way billing to certain subscribers in Shanghai and Beijing. The stock was 0.22 percent weaker at 0430 GMT on Tuesday. But a China Mobile spokesman in Hong Kong denied that China Mobile had plans to introduce one-way billing. Mobile phone carriers in most developed countries use a calling-party-pays system, which investors in China Mobile and rival mobile carrier China Unicom Ltd fear would slim down revenues. Some analysts have said less costly mobile billing plans, including calling-party-pays, would spur more people to buy mobile phones in China, where cost is a major concern for most people. The ministry has said it is researching a possible reform of China's mobile billing system. totaltele.com