From tomorrow, the three major operators will officially cancel the roaming fee. What do you think? For many business people who need to travel frequently and make phone calls, does this move make you very excited?
On August 30, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom announced to cancel the domestic long-distance charges and roaming charges (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) for mobile phone users from September 1, 2017, one month ahead of the original plan.
This time, the domestic long-distance call fee and roaming call fee for mobile phone users will be cancelled completely. Users do not need to apply and take effect automatically. For details about the cancellation of domestic long-distance charges and roaming charges for mobile phones, users can consult the online business hall, customer service hotline or business hall of local mobile companies of the three major operators.
In 3G and 4G packages, the three major operators have cancelled the domestic long-distance roaming charges of mobile phones and realized the national unified call charges. According to the Ministry of industry and information technology's "economic operation of communication industry in January July 2017", by the end of July, the number of mobile phone users of the three major operators reached 1.37 billion, and the number of mobile broadband (3G / 4G) users reached 1.06 billion, accounting for 77.4%. That is to say, 2G users are about 310 million. After the long-distance roaming fee is cancelled, these users will have direct income.
Hu Shifu, a migrant worker at a construction site in Beijing, told reporters: 'before using Unicom's number, the cost of returning to Shangqiu's hometown in Henan was very high, 80 cents per minute. '
Zhang Shifu from the same construction site said: 'my mobile phone number is the old mobile number, as well as the long-distance fee and roaming fee. It's good for me to cancel it. '
Mr. Li, a resident of Beijing, told reporters: 'normally, I don't go on business. Whether the long-distance fee and roaming fee are cancelled has little impact on me. '
Xiang Ligang, a telecommunication expert, said that people may have high expectations for the cancellation of roaming fees and long-distance fees, but the actual impact of the move may not be significant. Because at present, China Unicom and China Telecom are mostly 4G users, while 4G is a combination of long-distance fee, fixed line fee and roaming fee, basically there is no roaming fee and long-distance fee. China Mobile has a large number of old users. At present, the migration of old users to 4G packages has little impact on China Mobile's revenue. Therefore, the cancellation of roaming charges and long-distance charges by the three major communication operators has limited impact on the industry structure and revenue.
Traffic charges of three major operators
Beijing Mobile
The basic traffic package of Beijing Mobile is 1gb50 yuan nationwide, and the excess traffic is 1mb0.29 yuan
Beijing Unicom
The local traffic of Beijing Unicom is 1gb30 yuan, the national traffic is 1gb50 yuan, and the excess is 1mb0.27 yuan
Beijing Telecom
Local traffic of 18 yuan 1GB in one week and national traffic of 20 yuan 1GB in one week; fees of 0.3 yuan 1MB in excess
Note: customer service of three operators prompts that local traffic users can purchase national traffic when they leave the province, or use the fuel package of the current month, and the remaining traffic of the fuel package will not be carried forward to the next month.
How much can I save by canceling the roaming fee?
Because 4G users no longer have long-distance and roaming charges, the tariff adjustment will only affect the old package users. Fu Liang, a senior telecom industry analyst, said that the old package users have always been the users that the three major operators (before) could not take care of in the fierce competition. This policy of the state is a great advantage for the old package users and will effectively reduce their phone charges.
For more consumers, cancelling long-distance roaming fees doesn't necessarily mean it's more affordable, according to a telecom observer. According to the person, operators will promote the upgrading of this part of the 'old package' users to 4G package users by canceling the long-term fee. In this way, users may spend more than the old package every month. For example, at present, an operator still has an old package of 10 yuan per month without traffic in some regions, but if the package is replaced by a 4G package without long-distance roaming charges, the minimum price is 18 yuan.
Fu Liang also pointed out that at present, operators still have preferential packages for local users. These users have no need for long-distance roaming calls. It is not excluded that after the cancellation of roaming charges, the corresponding packages have changed, and their actual cost is higher than the original.