China Economic Net, April 2 (Reporter Zhang Haoran) Recently, China Mobile (Weibo \ Bo) Communications Group Corporation (hereinafter referred to as China Mobile) in Hong Kong $68 (about 54 yuan) package in Hong Kong has become popular on the Internet: 1,700 minutes of calls, 10,000 text messages, unlimited Internet traffic. The similarly priced China Mobile mainland 58 yuan package: 350 minutes, 10MB of data. Faced with such a big gap in the communication services enjoyed by the mainland and Hong Kong, some mainland users questioned: "Is it true that our living standards are 100 times higher than those of Hong Kong?" ”

The reporter's investigation found that as a user of China Mobile, the mainland and Hong Kong are not only different from each other in terms of package tariff standards, but also treated differently in terms of monthly traffic clearance and number portability, and the different policies inside and outside have undoubtedly caused huge controversy.

An industry insider said, "It is proposed that operators start with outstanding contradictions such as optimizing traffic packages, canceling the expiration and clearing of remaining traffic, and allowing number portability to transfer to the network, so as to promote the synchronous maturity of the consumer format of the communications industry." ”

A reporter from China Economic Net called the relevant staff of China Mobile, but as of press time, the reporter has not received an official reply.

Dispute 1: There is a difference between inside and outside the tariff standard, and the Hong Kong package is called "against the sky"

Recently, it was revealed on the Internet that China Mobile's HK$68 package in Hong Kong: 1,700 minutes of calls, 10,000 text messages, and unlimited Internet traffic. Some users compared the 58 yuan 3G package launched by China Mobile in the mainland: 350 minutes, 10MB of data (varies from place to place), and SMS is charged separately. The same China Mobile users, spend almost the same money, but the difference in the tariff standards of the package is so large, it is not difficult to understand that it is ridiculed as China Mobile's "one country, two systems".

According to the reporter's investigation, the above-mentioned popular package can be found on the official website of China Mobile Hong Kong, and the package is called "3GLite Service Plan", according to its slogan, "Only 68 Hong Kong dollars per month, you can enjoy 3G services". The reporter found that in fact, the price of the HK$68 package should actually be HK$80 (about 64 yuan), because there is also a monthly payment of HK$12 for MTR, tunnel, mobile phone service licence and administrative fees.

However, the HK$80 package does include 1,700 minutes of calls, 10,000 text messages, and unlimited data access, even though the local transfer speed of the package is limited to a maximum of 384kb/s.

A mainland student in Hong Kong commented, "The same company is separated by a wall, and the gap is inevitably chilling."

In fact, not only the 3G package, the reporter's investigation found that the 4G package launched by China Mobile in Hong Kong is also much cheaper than that in the mainland: the package of 128 Hong Kong dollars (about 102 yuan), including 1G number jù traffic and 1800 minutes of local call time; The HK$218 package (about 174 RMB) includes 5G data and unlimited local call time.

In the 4G Feixiang package launched by China Mobile in the mainland, the 138 yuan package includes 600M domestic data and 500 minutes of domestic calling minutes. The package of 238 yuan includes 1G domestic data and 1000 minutes of domestic calling minutes; The 388 yuan package includes 2G domestic data and 2,000 domestic calling minutes.

It can be seen that for the same package consumption of about 100 yuan, the number of jù traffic of China Mobile Hong Kong's 4G package is almost twice that of the mainland, and the call duration is more than three times that of the mainland, and for users who have handled a package of 200 yuan and above, the gap between the traffic and call services enjoyed by the two places is even greater.

In addition, China Mobile's data in the packages of various provinces and municipalities in the mainland can only be used in the mainland, excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Some media pointed out that China Mobile has launched a special service in Hong Kong, whether it is 1G or 5G package traffic, it can be shared and used in Hong Kong and the mainland. In addition, the off-package traffic in mainland China is charged at RMB0.29/M, while in Hong Kong, the off-package traffic is RMB0.06/M and RMB0.03/M, depending on the package selected.

Controversy 2: There is a difference between inside and outside the traffic clearance, and it is difficult to hide the difference in practice

The carrier's policy of clearing monthly traffic at the end of the month has been criticized so far. Previously, Hunan lawyer Liu Ming sued Changsha Mobile to the court, arguing that it was unreasonable for the mobile phone Internet package traffic to be cleared at the end of the month, "I spend money to buy traffic, but why do I have to pay for the excess traffic, and the unused traffic is not accumulated?" Didn't I pay for the unused traffic? China Mobile responded that the package discount itself has greatly reduced the traffic fee, and the corresponding restriction of the use of time, the remaining business volume is not carried forward to the next month, which is also a common practice in the domestic and foreign telecommunications industry.

But consumers do not buy it, Shenzhen \ Municipal Consumer Council recently released the "Shenzhen \ City Information Consumption Satisfaction Survey Analysis Report" shows that nearly seventy percent of consumers think that the operator's mobile phone traffic is unreasonable to clear on a monthly basis.

According to the South China Morning Post on December 20, 2013, China Mobile Hong Kong has launched a "2cm" digital trading platform, allowing 4G users to sell unused digital packages to other users.

It is understood that users can trade unused package traffic in units of 1GB through the platform. Sellers can set their own prices, ranging from HK$15 to HK$60 per unit of traffic. Moreover, sellers can check the transaction status, adjust the price and the number of new orders at any time, and the platform will automatically search for the most suitable package for buyers, and the number of purchases can be used in the current month.

A mainland user pointed out: "The same China Mobile, in the mainland monthly subscription clearance, in Hong Kong not only cleared but also allowed you to sell excess." This is still in the country and has not gone abroad, can it not be so one country, two systems."

It is reported that in January 2014, the three major operators in Shanghai announced the launch of the quarterly billing method for mobile Internet traffic, taking the lead in breaking the "traffic clearance overlord clause". But some users don't buy it, someone once launched a survey on the Internet "What do you think about the quarterly package of mobile phone traffic", 162 participating netizens, 56% of them think that this new policy is a change of soup and not a change of medicine, hoping that it will not be cleared every month.

"We will try to revise regulations such as 'zero traffic', which are widely opposed by consumers, to allow consumers to save their uneaten 'chicken legs' for the next meal." On March 25, the Guangdong\Provincial Consumer Council, together with the Guangzhou\Municipal Consumer Council and the Shenzhen\Municipal Consumer Council, issued an initiative to telecom operators to "launch a variety of traffic billing cycle packages such as quarterly, semi-annual and annual zeroing, and gradually transition to allowing consumers to continue to use the unused traffic until the next billing cycle." ”

Controversy 3: There is a difference between inside and outside the number porting, and it is still unknown when it will be implemented

"The advantage of number porting is that consumers can not only freely choose operators according to their own personal circumstances and reasonably allocate the expenditure of communication fees, but also promote healthy competition between operators through this measure and provide consumers with better services." The Shenzhen Municipal Consumer Council said so.

It is understood that at present, in order to ensure the loyalty of users, the major communication operators in most cities in the mainland do not support the number portability function. Consumers must change their numbers if they want to choose other communication operators, which greatly restricts consumers' free choice.

In a survey conducted by the Shenzhen/Municipal Consumer Council, 58.6% of respondents agreed with the implementation of number porting between different operators, while only 10% disagreed.

According to media reports, China Mobile users in Hong Kong can now achieve number portability. If a user who signs an annual contract in Hong Kong is not satisfied with the service of the operator he is using, he only needs to pay a penalty of HK$500 to terminate the contract immediately, keep his mobile phone number and transfer it to another operator to access the network, while non-contracted users can change the communication operator for free at any time.

The reporter's investigation found that as early as October 2006, the former Ministry of Information Industry had issued No. 630 document "Notice of the Ministry of Information Industry on Guaranteeing the Right to Choose Tariff Plans for Chinese Mobile Phone Users", which was known in the industry as the "number porting to package" or "number porting to brand" policy. However, until today, the mobile communications market in Chinese mainland has not been able to truly implement this policy due to the entanglement of interests between the three operators. On November 22, 2010, the number portability of the local network in Tianjin and Hainan for mobile users was launched, but it has not been implemented since.

The Guangdong Provincial Consumer Council appealed: "In order to promote healthy competition among communication enterprises and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, communication operators have made every effort to carry out number porting services, and effectively safeguard the right of consumers to make their own choices under the law." ”