(SinoCast via NewsEdge) Shanghai Unicom, the second largest mobile phone carrier in the city, has joined the city's dominant wireless telecom in cutting service fees by as much as 70%, bringing rates closer to fixed-line charges.
Shanghai Unicom said under the new plan, Shanghai Unicom customers can subscribe to a one-year package that costs just 50 yuan ($6.25) for 500 minutes a month and 0.11 yuan ($0.013) for every extra minute.
These rates are close to fixed-line charges, which run 0.20 yuan ($0.025) for the first three minutes, while incoming calls are free.
Previously, mobile operators were charging 0.40 yuan ($0.05) a minute on average.
The price decreases are part of the telecoms' strategy to retain customers in advance of 3G services, said Li Yanfeng, an analyst at Shanghai-based CCID Consulting, a research firm under the Ministry of Information Industry.
China is expected to issue 3G licenses at the end of this year or in early 2007.
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