On 9/23/2009 China Telecom announced that it will adopt one-way charge policy for its mobile phone users since October 2009. This makes the company the first Chinese carrier to introduce one-way charge policy for mobile phone users. Experts believe this will spark the wide spread introduction of this method and signal the beginning of the one-way charging era in China. 

In their responses to media, the two other Chinese mobile carriers said they will soon adopt the same policy. To date over 700 million mobile users in China are charged for both receiving and making calls.

China Telecom sources said the company plans to sell 70 new 3G phones since October 1st, all of which will cost less than RMB 1,000 each.

According to a report in China Daily on September 23, the company's move points up the fierce competition among the three carriers in the domestic telecommunications market, especially in the 3G era, which started when the country issued licenses in January, analysts said. The high-speed 3G networks allow users access to new services such as film downloads and video calls and generate profits for carriers that are higher than traditional voice services.

"Every player has to attract more new users as quickly as possible, even if an aggressive pricing strategy brings a loss," said Sandy Shen, an analyst at Gartner Inc, a US-based IT research firm. The other carriers have announced cuts of their own. China Mobile, which has more than 500 million handset users on China's mainland, has reduced its international roaming fee by as much as 80 percent, the country's No. 1 mobile operator said on September 22.