Responding to the growing complaints about the cost
of Internet service in China, the Chinese Government is reportedly considering
a reduction of Internet access charges.
Charges for general users are to be cut with a significant reduction for
institutional users, according to a Beijing Telegraph Bureau source of Xinhua, the government’s official news
agency.
Confirming this, the deputy director of the Telecommunications Bureau at the
Ministry of Information Industry, Chang Xiaobin, said that charges would be
less in 1999 but there was no schedule for the reductions.
According to various surveys, the cost of Internet access is the biggest
obstacle to potential customers and the leading drawback for existing users.
Xinhua reported that another market study showed that users in Beijing,
a fourth of the Chinese Internet market, spend nearly 35 percent of their
monthly income on Internet access compared to one percent in the United
States.