More than 467 million Chinese mobile phone users will be able to enjoy free incoming calls within two years, regulators said on Friday.

In addition, the roaming fee, which is more than six times the cost of intracity-mobile communications, is expected to be regulated and probably dropped, according to the Ministry of Information Industry and the National Development and Reform Commission.

The "one-way charge" will become a nationwide policy, and average telecommunications fees will continue to drop, the MII said in a statement on its Website.

"It is a natural step to allow free incoming calls as Western carriers launched such services several years ago," said Yang Peifang, an expert at the China Academy of Telecommunications Research under the MII. "Chinese carriers have grown strong, and they can accommodate the change."

Two years ago, free incoming calls were forbidden as they threatened the income of the state-owned carriers, or "state assets."

China Mobile and China Unicom, the country's two mobile carriers, declined to comment on the issue. But they have already launched package plans that greatly reduce charges for incoming calls. A Shanghai Mobile plan, for instance, charges a flat monthly fee of 6 yuan (78 US cents) for unlimited incoming calls. China's telecommunications fees dropped 11.5 percent on average last year, MII Minister Xi Guohua said recently.

Such fees now account for eight percent to 10 percent of people's total spending in China, compared with less than five percent in the United States.

The roaming fee (0.60 yuan a minute), along with long-distance call costs, amount to 1.3 yuan a minute, almost 10 times the cost of local communications.

"The high price is without reason, as the telecoms' costs for cross-province calls are much less," Kan Kaili, a professor at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, said in a previous interview. "The fees can be cut at least 0.20 yuan a minute."

The government is considering a price ceiling for roaming fees to better regulate the sector, which has generated complaints from customers and the Beijing Consumers Association, according to MII's statement.

The changes will push the carriers to transform their business models, industry insiders said.

Carriers will no longer be able to depend on income from voice services. Instead, they will have to develop income from data services, which will be especially important in the coming third-generation telecommunications market, Norson Telecom Consulting said in a recent note. 

(Shanghai Daily April 28, 2007)