China's two major mobile service operators, China Mobile and China Unicom are cutting down high international roaming fees, Shanghai Securities News, quoted by a Xinhua News report said.
The report also quoted an industry insider as saying that reduction of international roaming fees will increase the two operators' attraction to middle- and high-end users and give them an advantage on future telecom market.
China Unicom has newly launched cooperation with 27 operators worldwide for its GSM network by the end of November, which expands the international roaming service to 179 countries and regions, the report said.
Meanwhile, it has begun to provide international roaming callback service for the GSM Worldwind users, lowering their international roaming fees by at most 70%.
As for China Mobile, it once reduced the dialed charges and roaming fees for GPRS service by an average of 50% in June 2006.
In mid-November this year, the company's board chairman and CEO Wang Jianzhou said China Mobile call on 26 major telecom operators from around the world to lower international roaming fees sharply in the Beijing Olympic Games period.
The high tele-interconnection settlement between Chinese telecom operators and their counterparts in Europe and the US is considered as the main obstacle in cutting down the high international roaming fees.