China's unified short message code system, starting this month,
will make the industry grow in a healthy way and the regulator will
take measures to ensure it works, the Ministry of Information
Industry said yesterday.
A new mobile service provider code prefixed with 106 will be
formally initiated to replace the current four-digit number from
each telecom service provider in China, which went into effect on
Saturday.
Carriers including China Mobile, China Unicom, China Netcom and
China Telecom will use the new code system for mobile phone and
Little Smart users, whose user base has reached 600 million.
The person-to-person SMS system won't be influenced by the
change, but paid services such as ringtone downloads and mobile
newspaper subscriptions will come under the new system.
"A service provider can freely choose a cooperator among the
four Chinese telecom service providers (under the new system) and
bad behavior can be easily tracked," the ministry said in a
statement on its Website.
MII has established a team to ensure all firms to adopt the new
codes and set up a national hotline 12300 to regulate the new
system.
From December 1 to March 1, users' subscription to the old
numbers will be cancelled and they will be told of the new code
prefixed with 106, according to Shanghai Mobile, the biggest local
carrier.
"People can easily remember the service number under the new
code system and that will boost the development of the whole
industry," Shanghai Mobile told Shanghai Daily.
About 440 million people are expected to use non-voice mobile
services in 2007, accounting for 83 percent of total handset users.
The figure will reach 94 percent in 2010.
(Shanghai Daily December 4, 2007)