GoTone users of China Mobile's Beijing subsidiary will
enjoy a caller-pays charging system starting next month.
Beijing Mobile started on Tuesday sending out messages to its users that they
will be charged under the one-way
billing system - only callers will have to pay starting from
August 1.
Previously, only users who joined certain service
packages could enjoy the privilege of caller pays.
"All of our GoTone users will be covered by the new charging system
automatically, whichever service package they join," a customer service staff
from Beijing Mobile, said. "Our Shenzhouxing and M-Zone users will not be
affected for the time being."
Previously any report of the regulator's intention to adopt a one-way billing
system raised concerns of revenue loss for China Mobile and China Unicom, both
State-owned companies.
In December last year, there were reports that the Chinese regulators were
ready to introduce the caller-pays charging scheme. But the reports were refuted
by top officials from the Ministry of Information Industry and mobile operators.
"Regulators have been relaxing their grip on mobile charges gradually, and it
is not necessary for them to make a formal announcement (for the introduction of
a caller-pays scheme)," Wang Guoping, an analyst with China Galaxy Securities,
said in an earlier report.
In fact, China Mobile and China Unicom have been cutting charges in recent
years. Many of their local subsidiaries have also adopted a de facto one-way
billing system in many regions in China in order to attract more customers
But the system has never been adopted in Beijing, the city experts said where
mobile charges were untouchable.
Changes first emerged two months ago, when Beijing Mobile released a service
package that promised a caller-pays billing system.
However, the package was not well received because the company required users
to cling to sign up for at least a year.
（sohu.com
