Major operators may wish to clean up the caller ID fee in time, which is also beneficial to the people.
According to reports, in response to netizens’ message about “when can the caller ID fee be cancelled”, the Ministry of industry and information technology replied on the People.Cn Co.Ltd(603000) “leadership message board” that the caller ID fee is not priced by the government. At present, it only exists in some old package users who have not been relocated and have stopped selling, accounting for less than 2%, and the caller ID fee will be gradually cancelled in three to five years.
Do I have to charge for caller ID? Many people may not have heard of this charging item, but it really exists in people’s daily life. Previously, after full discussion, the mobile roaming fee has been cancelled, but the caller ID fee still exists. Although the current proportion of users is relatively low, the rationality of this fee is still questioned.
On the one hand, with the rapid development of relevant technologies in China’s communication field, the cost of caller ID, a basic service, is actually very low. Some operators have included it in the package. In this case, it is obviously inappropriate to continue charging for this project.
On the other hand, the service quality of caller ID is in doubt. For example, in daily life, many fraudulent calls often harass users with a variety of vests. In this process, the information disclosed by caller ID is often inaccurate, but after the event, the operators almost never bear the responsibility.
This is also the reason why many people criticize the “caller ID charge” – since the service is not in place, it is unreasonable to still charge relevant fees. Moreover, many users do not know the cost details in this process.
This time, the Ministry of industry and information technology stated that it would continue to gradually eliminate the caller ID fee within three to five years by encouraging market competition and strengthening policy guidance. This makes many people see the hope of completely abolishing this additional charge. Of course, we also hope that this time period can be shorter.
In 2014, the Ministry of industry and information technology issued documents jointly with the national development and Reform Commission to liberalize all telecom service charges and implement market regulation, which will be formulated by telecom enterprises according to market conditions and user needs, and will no longer be priced by the government. In other words, in the process of canceling the caller ID fee, respecting the market law is an “iron law” that must be observed, and the government cannot intervene too much, which is one of the reasons why the Ministry of industry and information technology stated that “it will be phased out in three to five years”.
From the perspective of operation, the cancellation of caller ID fee has little impact on the earnings of the three operators. First, since 2017, the Ministry of industry and information technology has promoted basic telecom enterprises to give away or include caller ID services in new and on-sale packages without additional charges, and gradually promoted the migration of existing users. Second, professionals in the telecommunications field said that after years of technological development, the current cost of caller ID is not high. Therefore, no matter from which perspective, it is better to cancel the caller ID fee sooner rather than later.
Now, the Ministry of industry and information technology has made it clear that the caller ID fee should be phased out. Then, the three major operators might as well take action as soon as possible and actively implement the relevant policy requirements of “raising speed and reducing fee” to benefit the people. Previously, the cancellation of mobile phone long-distance roaming fees and other fees was highly praised. The cancellation of caller ID fees by operators is also really beneficial to the people.
