Average tariffs to drop by another 10%. Senior management has given operators another task target! Are you ready?

At this year's two sessions, the top leadership clarified the regulatory requirement of "reducing the average broadband and dedicated line charges for small and medium-sized enterprises by another 10%." This is the first time in 2020 that the top leadership has once again clarified the operators' targets for further speed increases and fee reductions. In the face of the top leadership's continued "watering the water to raise fish", are all parties involved, including operators, ready to implement the people-friendly policies?

1. Increasing speed and reducing fees have long been the business strategy of operators

Although the top leadership did not clearly issue speed-up and fee-reduction targets in 2020, as a competitive strategy, the operators' speed-up and fee-reduction actions are not ambiguous at all. Here we take 5G tariffs as an example. In 2019, the three major operators simultaneously put 5G packages on sale, with the lowest-priced package being 128 yuan/month. Then in 2020, there was a 30% discount marketing. This fee reduction is real.

In addition to 5G packages, operators have invested huge resources in 5G network construction. Official public data shows that in 2020 alone, more than 600,000 5G base stations were newly built and put into operation in my country, which has achieved full coverage of major cities, and 5G network coverage has also been achieved in some hot counties and towns. To promote network speed-up, operators dare not slack off for a moment.

In fact, in addition to the discounted marketing of 5G packages and the crazy construction of the network, the operators' speed increase and fee reduction on 4G are also obvious to all. According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the average unit price of traffic in the first three months of 2020 was about 4.44 yuan/GB, the average unit price of traffic in the first six months was about 4.26 yuan/GB, and the average unit price of traffic in the first 11 months was about 3.8 yuan/GB.

In addition, the continued increase in broadband penetration also shows that price factors are no longer as sensitive as before. Data from 2020 shows that the three major operators have added more than 30 million broadband users, and this was achieved on the basis of sustained high-speed growth in previous years. In particular, after China Mobile entered the broadband market, my country's broadband prices have plummeted, and broadband has successfully entered thousands of households.

2. Speed ​​increase and fee reduction further doubled the scale of operators’ business

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that since the construction of the 4G network, my country's demand for mobile Internet applications has surged, online consumption has been extremely active, and high-traffic application scenarios such as short videos and live broadcasts have driven the rapid growth of mobile Internet traffic. In 2020, my country's mobile Internet access traffic consumption reached 165.6 billion GB. How big is this number? We need to compare to see it more clearly.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also shows that in 2015, my country's mobile Internet access traffic consumption reached 4.187 billion GB. Mobile Internet access traffic consumption increased from 4.187 billion GB in 2015 to 165.6 billion GB in 2020. This is a nearly 40-fold increase. This is due to both the natural growth in browsing consumption and the "daring to use" driven by fee reductions.

In addition to traffic, broadband is also growing very rapidly. Public data shows that in 2015, the three basic telecommunications companies had a net increase of 12.888 million fixed Internet broadband access users, totaling 213 million. By the end of 2020, the total number of fixed Internet broadband access users of the three basic telecommunications companies reached 484 million, with a net increase of 34.27 million throughout the year. Among them, China Mobile alone had a net increase of more than 23 million, and the number of users reached exceeded 210 million.

In addition to the doubling of traffic and broadband scale, operators' telecom business revenue and business volume have also increased significantly. According to official data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2015, telecom business revenue reached 113 million yuan, and the total volume of telecom business reached 2314.17 billion yuan; in 2020, the cumulative telecom business revenue reached 1.36 trillion yuan, and the total volume of telecom business reached 1.5 trillion yuan.

3. To fully benefit the people, broadband speed increase and fee reduction need to break the monopoly

In fact, the regulatory authorities have long paid attention to the problem of broadband monopoly and have issued policies to address it many times. However, judging from the actual results, there is a suspicion that the thunder is loud but the rain is small. At least in some areas, the governance of broadband monopoly has not achieved the expected results. If the problem of broadband monopoly is not solved, it will be difficult to implement any large fee reduction targets.

Broadband includes medium-sized enterprise broadband and dedicated lines. There are problems of monopoly management by operators and monopoly management by community or park managers. The monopoly management of operators is actually achieved through the monopoly management of communities. Therefore, to solve the problem of monopoly management of broadband, we still need to start with the management and rectification of communities and parks, and open up the real dead-end roads.

Since 2015, although the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has taken the lead in managing broadband monopoly operations, including in commercial buildings, the overall effect still needs to be evaluated from the perspective of users. In fact, the management of broadband monopoly operations cannot be solved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology alone, or even by taking the initiative. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology can manage telecommunications companies, but not construction and property companies.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is the one that truly has the power to manage residential communities and parks. If broadband is not pre-set in a newly built residential community, then such a community should not pass the inspection, let alone be delivered to the homeowners; if the property management of an existing residential community dares to block broadband from entering, then it must be drastically rectified through fines or even cancellation of business qualifications. Otherwise, even the best joint document may become a mirage.

To some extent, the top-level measures to reduce broadband and dedicated line fees for small and medium-sized enterprises are benefiting the general public. In addition to assigning task targets to operators, it is even more important to solve the last mile problem, and the severity and complexity of this problem are definitely far beyond everyone's imagination. Solving the one-mile problem of the communication fee reduction policy to benefit the people requires strong action from the regulatory authorities, mainly the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Development and Reform Commission.

Since 2015, the speed increase and fee reduction have not only promoted small profits but also quick turnover, improved users' sense of gain, but also expanded the business volume of operators. Although the gap between operators' volume and revenue has widened, with the increase in social informatization needs, operators are also the ultimate beneficiaries.