CHINA will "standardize" regulations on telecommunications services and also plans to open the industry wider to private investment, the top economic planning body said in a report during annual meeting of the National People's Congress, which opened yesterday.

The National Development and Reform Commission said it will "standardize" telecom services in China, which is the world's biggest telecom market with more than 900 million mobile subscribers.

The NDRC made the announcement following widespread public complaints about the high cost and low speed of broadband services.

By the end of the third quarter of last year, 91 percent of users experienced broadband speeds of less than 400 kilobits per second.

The average cost of 1-megabyte-per-second bandwidth on China's mainland is four times the equivalent cost in the US and more than 400 times that of Hong Kong, according to the Beijing-based Data Center of China Internet.

In November, the NDRC started an anti-monopoly probe of Internet services supplied by China Telecom and China Unicom on pricing, volume and sales of broadband and bandwidth-leasing business.

Meanwhile, the NDRC also said it welcomes private investors to invest more in the telecom industry when it is opened wider.

"We will implement and improve policies and measures to promote the development of the non-public sector," it said.
 

Source:shanghaidaily