A Shanghai Communications Administration official
told the National Business Daily on September 22 that they
could do nothing to enforce the Ministry of Information Industry's
July 18 notice on?VoIP cafés because it failed to set any
punishments.
Though the notice stipulated that no company or
individual is allowed to run them apart from China Telecom and
China Netcom in designated areas, at least 15,000 VoIP cafés are
estimated to be operating in Shanghai alone.
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and
also known as IP telephony, Internet telephony, and digital phone.
It is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any
other IP-based network and is significantly cheaper for users than
standard voice telecommunications.
The same day of its notice, the ministry granted
China Telecom and China Netcom permission to establish experimental
VoIP services in the cities of Shenzhen, Shangrao, Changchun and
Tai'an.
Zhang Tao, who runs a VoIP café in Shanghai, told
National Business Daily that he resigned from his job to set
it up three months ago, and is now seeking premises for a
second.
"You only have to put in 10,000 yuan investment,
and you will get back the same amount in less than half a year,"
according to Zhang, who said his VoIP café earns him 3,000 yuan per
month.?
"I set the same price as telecom companies, but I
can change it at any time. There's a lot of room to make a profit,"
Zhang said. Long distance IP telephone services charge 0.3 yuan per
minute, but VoIP costs only 0.1 yuan.
In early July, a VoIP café run by a friend of
Zhang's had its equipment taken away by an operator.
"It's obvious that VoIP business has badly impacted
traditional voice services," said a source National Business
Daily described as "close to" Shanghai Long-distance Telecom
Administration.
Cai Guangyu, a China Information Industry Research
Office consultant, said operators have complex feelings toward VoIP
because they risk big reductions in profit whether they invest in
it or not.
National Business Daily said five telecom
giants, including Telecom, Netcom, Tietong, China Mobile and China
Unicom, are developing their own VoIP services, and some
underground operators misuse big companies' names.
"Although we may violate regulations, operators
have no choice but to start their own VoIP business," one anonymous
China Netcom official said.
Professor Xie Linzhen, member of the ministry's
Science and Technology Committee, said VoIP is a rising technology,
and markets and policies will need to be regulated.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, October 11, 2005)