BEIJING, Dec. 4 -- China will set 0.10 yuan (1.5 U.S. cents) as a uniform fee for short messages nationwide next year, its telecommunications regulator said on Wednesday.

    The move helps to establish a fair and open telecommunications market, industry insiders said. China has more than 627 million mobile phone users, ranking it No. 1 in the world,

    China will cancel the different mobile short message fee packages among telecom carriers from January 1. The uniform price for short messages will take effect on January 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.

    Starting this month, telecom carriers, including China Mobile and China Unicom, will be asked to cancel all new packages with varying mobile message charges, according to the ministry.

    Under the different fee packages, China Unicom's users are charged 50 percent more if they send short messages to subscribers of China Mobile, the country's No. 1 telco, and vice versa.

    "The current packages limit the rights of consumers to choose the carriers and it's not suitable now," said Yang Peifang, an engineer at China Academy of Telecommunication Research, which is under the ministry.

    Relatively small carriers, like China Unicom and China Telecom, will benefit from the policy, industry insiders said.

    There are more than 400 million China Mobile users by the end of October, accounting for 70 percent of the market. China Unicom has more than 100 million users. China Telecom, which acquired China Unicom's CDMA (code division multiple access) network, has only 40 million users.

    China started its long-awaited industry reorganization in June which saw China Mobile acquiring China Tietong while China Unicom sold its CDMA business to China Telecom. China Unicom GSM (global system for mobile communications) and other businesses merged with China Netcom.

    Other policies to be launched may include adjustment of interconnection charges and national roaming and infrastructure sharing, according to consulting firm Ovum.

    "We believe these asymmetric regulations would assist the small mobile operators like China Telecom to compete better against China Mobile," Ovum said in a recent note.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)