The country's two biggest fixed-line telecom operators yesterday joined hands in network inter-connection, which is expected to strengthen the communication ability of both.

China Telecom and China Railcom finally signed the deal, the first between the two giants, after several months of negotiations.

The deal is quite critical as the inter-connection forms the basis of nationwide telecom operations in the country, and is considered to be the major feature in breaking the monopoly.

China Telecom, the country's dominant fixed-line telecom operator, owns controlling shares of the whole fixed-line telecom network. Its monopolized operation has ignited hot discussions and many complaints from customers.

China Railcom, which kicked off its operations earlier this year, plans to start nationwide services in July.

"Network inter-connection paves the way for our future operation," said Dong Binfeng, spokesman of China Railcom.

China Railcom is widely regarded as the only potential rival of China Telecom.

Once it starts providing services in July, its charging standard will be 10 to 20 per cent lower than China Telecom's, according to the managing Ministry of Information Industry.

"China Telecom pledges to provide fair inter-connection services for China Railcom," said Zhou Deqiang, president of the telecom giant, which provides services to about 150 million customers.

The company also confirmed yesterday that it held a discussion with Japan Telecom late last week.

(China Daily 06/13/2001)