Society

Lower fixed-line fees urged

By Wang Qingyun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-10-12 11:34
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The Beijing Consumers Association suggested lowering the monthly phone line rental fee in a proposal submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Monday, the People's Daily reported. 

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A recent survey conducted by the association showed that 91.82 percent of the respondents thought charging for monthly phone line rental was unreasonable. The monthly fee in Beijing remained at 21.6 yuan ($3.24) for more than 10 years, while the cost of running the network has decreased sharply. 

Lowering the rental fee will also help prevent losing fixed-line telephone users to the booming cell phone business, said the association. Statistics show the number of households using a telephone has decreased by 9.97 million in the first seven months of 2010.