The 9-day tour of Taiwan being undertaken by China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is like a news derby. There’s something new every day – today we’ve got the completion of discussions between China Mobile and Taiwanese operator Chunghwa Telecom that have been going on since March. The two operators have announced they will be agreeing on reduced roaming rates and joint services in the near future – and the other three main operators in Taiwan are expected to follow suit.
What are the details?
There are annoyingly few right now. Basically, Taiwan and China are separated by 180 kilometers of water called the Taiwan Strait. Relations between mainland China and Taiwan are traditionally very strained. Part of that tension revealed itself in pretty hideous roaming fees for mobile owners in either country when visiting the other. But China Mobile hopes to alleviate that.
Roaming rates:
The agreement with Chunghwa hasn’t brought up any concrete details yet. The operators have said they plan to reduce voice roaming “to a certain extent” in the near future. The Chairman of Chunghwa, Lu Shyue-ching also said the data roaming fees will be reduced dramatically – from tens of thousands of Chinese yuan, down to 200 or 300 per day. To put that into context, 200 CNY is around 20 euro, or 30 dollars. And that’s the new reduced fee.
The operators have announced that they expect the other main operators in Taiwan, Far Eastone Telecommunications, Taiwan Mobile and VIBO Telecom, to enter into similar agreements with China Mobile.
Joint services:
Outside of pricing, the operators intend to co-operate on value-added mobile services for visitors to/from either nation. The services would be aimed at both tourists and businessmen.
What we think?
I’ve got two things I think about this, and both of them relate to that data roaming rate above.
First – these are two of the most important countries in the world when it comes to mobile. Taiwan is the seat of vast mobile manufacturing empires, and China has the largest mobile using population on the planet. I just can’t imagine those madly huge roaming rates being between the two countries if it was just the businesses looking after it. This really smacks of government interference.
Second – I can’t help but wonder if those data roaming rates can be correct. If they are, then current data roaming would cost you at least 1,000 euro a day! I’ve spent quite some time searching for confirmation of those figures, but not being able to read Mandarin has pretty much scuppered me. If anyone can confirm them, please drop me a mail at cian@gomonews.net
Via Trading Markets
