Recent survey on phone users in China's three main cities shows the newly debuted telecommunication billing reform still left some doubts in people who fear that the telecom fee will otherwise rise from the current level, the morning edition of the Shanghai News reported on February 22.
Among all the people polled in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, by economic studies center of the State Statistics Bureau, 95 percent said they approved of the policy, but admitted their approval didn't mean that they believed they could pay less for phone calls after the reform.
Some said China Telecom's rising charge on in-city calls would largely expand their daily phone expense because their phones are mostly used to connect calls with friends in the same city.
Others said since people have got used to use IP phone cards to connect long-distance calls, the rise in the in-city call fee will still add to the IP card expenditure.
As to the cheap web-enabled phones, most said they would benefit none from that because the larger part of the population, apart from the younger generation, are off-line phone users, with some never accessed to the net.
In all, the survey indicated people's main concern on the reform is whether they are real beneficiaries of the new policy or the chief victim.
If the policy charged most people otherwise more, it may downcast many.
(Eastday.com 02/22/2001)
