China Pushes For Internet Speeds As Telcos To Cut Bandwidth Fees

May 16, 2015 12:03 PM EDT

(Photo : REUTERS) Mainland China has 570 million mobile subscribers and more than 630 million uses the internet.

The users of the internet will get a big news as various telcos in China are about to cut its mobile data fees.

South China Morning Post reported that based on the plans that have been announced on May 15, three telecommunication companies will cut its mobile data fees. The China Telecom will reduce the fees by 35 percent, the China Unicom will cut the fees by 20 percent and the China Mobile will cut the charge fee by 35 percent.

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The plan to reduce and cut the charge of the internet is in response to the call of Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday, to boosts the internet speeds and to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. Li said that China is the biggest "mobile phone market"; however, the internet speed is low, which is ranked worse than 80^th in the world and added that the information infrastructure of the country is close to obsolete.

He added that if the telecoms cut charge on the internet fees, it can increase the overall profits of the operators.

Moreover, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information technology Shang Bing stated that their purpose is to make sure that all user will have a higher level of broadband service and to have an access to 4G mobile services.

In the same report, Kitty Fok, head of China for market research firm IDC, said that the cut fees will make a big profit and cut of charges are just in line with state policy.

Meanwhile, the IT World added that the government of China aims by the end of 2017 that most homes will have an access to a 100 Mbps Internet and wants to see an average internet speed at 30 Mbps in urban homes while 20 Mbps for rural residents.

For reference, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information, the mainland has 570 million mobile subscribers and more than 630 million internet users. As for the service charge, the urban users who earn about 2,000 yuan, which is roughly around HK$2,536, to 4,000 yuan a month pay about 100 yuan for broadband and 50 yuan for 1 GB of mobile data per month.

TagsTelcos, China Mobile, china telecom