China opens telecoms market

China eased its grip on the telecommunications market on Friday by letting local carriers determine service charges rather than follow a government-set price range.

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"The market should decide prices for all telecom services," said a joint statement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission.

"Carriers will be able to set charging, billing and price structure," it said. The regulators also abolished some regulations on telecom service charges.

"This sudden announcement marks full-marketization of China’s telecom industry," said Xiang Ligang, founder of telecom website CCTime.com.

Xiang has been a long-time supporter of reform in the sector, believing that by introducing more competition, the Big Three - China Mobile , China Telecom and China Unicom - will adapt to the rapidly changing mobile Internet era with customers likely to get better services at a lower price.

The Central Government began to ease controls last year when dozens of private companies secured approval to provide telecom services by leasing infrastructure built by State-owned carriers.

gaoyuan@chinadaily.com.cn