China Mobile Lowers Roaming Fees Again

　　Well there is good news in store for travellers here in China.

 

　　China Mobile service provider has just announced it has slashed¹ international roaming fees in another 62-countries and regions.

 

　　Xie Zhao has the details:

 

　　China Mobile has announced it will charge no more than 3-yuan per minute for all of its international roaming fees across 242-countries and regions it runs services in.

 

　　Xing Hongtao is deputy manager at the pricing management office of the marketing² department in China Mobile.

 

　　He says the demand for roaming services has massively increased as more Chinese nationals travel overseas:

 

　　"First of all, the number of mainland residents' roaming overseas hit more than 83 million, up 18.4% from 2011. Secondly³, the number of students studying abroad reached 1.55 million, up 8.39% year-on-year. Thirdly, the number of Chinese citizens working abroad has risen to 850 thousand, up 3.66 percent.

 

　　Generally speaking, the whole international exchange has become closer."

 

　　However, a number of subscribers say they are perplexed⁴ about international roaming prices and the high fee.

 

　　Lu Wenchang is deputy manager in at China Mobile's marketing department.

 

　　He says overseas operators have put more emphasis on Chinese subscribers' needs:

 

　　"It has become a trend for global carriers' revenue to grow slowly. According to our statistics, the average revenue growth of global top ten carriers is only about 1.3%. With the internet expanding and carriers' cost surging, profit margins⁵ of the carriers have decreased. If we have some cheese, multiple carriers in different countries and regions would like to share the cheese."

 

　　Lu says a deal has been reached with carriers in other countries and regions to offer three categories of international roaming services.

 

　　This means when subscribers are abroad dialing back to the Chinese mainland or receiving international roaming calls, they will be charged one of the three prices.

 

　　They come in at just under 1-yuan, just under 2-yuan and just under 3-yuan per minute, depending on which area they are in.

 

　　For example, China Mobile clients in Singapore will now pay 0.99 yuan per minute to call the Chinese mainland.

 

　　At the same time, data traffic fees in 63-countries have been cut by 50-percent.

 

　　China Mobile has lowered international roaming fees for the ninth time since 2010.

 

　　The company says the cuts are aimed at maintaining high-end user loyalty⁶ amid increasingly intense domestic competition.

 

　　For CRI, this is Xie Zhao.

1 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

3 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

4 perplexed   

adj.不知所措的

参考例句：

• The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛，走了又回来，犹豫不决，总怕上当受骗。
• The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。

5 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

6 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。