(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| China Aims to Cut Internet Charges in 1999
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February 8, 1999 (BEIJING) -- The Chinese government is considering ways
to cut Internet charges in response to the growing number of complaints
from the country's Internet users.
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A source at the Beijing Telegraph Bureau said that Internet charges will
be reduced to some extent, and the cut will be more dramatic for institutional
users. The bureau accounts for the biggest number of Internet users
in the country.
Chang Xiaobin, deputy director of the Telecommunications Bureau under
the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), also confirmed that charges
will be lowered in 1999. But he noted there is no specific timetable
for the price cut.
The people of Beijing on average spend 34.8 percent of their monthly
salaries just to get onto the Internet, a sharp comparison to the one
percent in the United States.
The high charges have been blamed as one of the factors that hinder the
development of the information industry, while many Internet providers
feel that it is difficult to make profit from a small market.
In fact, a number of local providers have voluntarily introduced flexible
price policies geared toward certain time frames and rewards for frequent
users.
(Xinhua News Agency)
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