IP phone bar debut in city
10/11/2003 15:13
The Shanghai Telecom offered Internet Protocol (IP) phone-bar operations
in the city to join the competition with the other two local fixed-line telecom
operators - Shanghai Unicom and Shanghai Netcom, the Shanghai Morning Post
reported today.
Such IP phone bar business, charging only three jiao for
domestic long-distance calls per minute, will make a head-on contest with the IP
public phone supermarket services launched by Shanghai Unicom and Shanghai
Netcom in the second half of last year, which also charged three jiao for the
same calls per minute.
Compared with the IP public phone supermarket
services, the phone bars also offer local dialing business, said an industry
analyst.
"We have opened nearly 100 such phone bars in the city, with our
domestic distance calls every minute four jiao cheaper than ordinary
long-distance calls," said a spokesman with the Shanghai Telecom's public phone
operations.
Shanghai Unicom and Shanghai Netcom usually built their IP public
phone supermarkets near the university campuses with big throngs of
people.
Shanghai Telecom has to take the move to survive the tough
competition in the local landline phone market, the analyst said
"Anyway,
local residents will be the largest beneficiary," the analyst added.
Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news
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