China Telecom gets licence
1 November 2002
China Telecom, the mainland's main fixedline operator, has been granted a licence by the US telecoms authorities to provide telephone and internet data services between the two countries, Business Weekly said. A company spokesman said that the licence would considerably reduce its operating costs for international business and would put it in a better position when negotiating charges with overseas partners.
Currently, calls from China to the US cost Yn8 per minute, far higher than the cost of calls made in the other direction. According to Ministry of Information Industry figures, the income of domestic telecoms service providers from international calls in the first six months of this year was Yn3.68bn, 18 per cent lower than in the same period of 2001.