Cancel data "roaming" fees: speed, accuracy, and transformation, none of them can be lost!

In this year's government work report, the "speed up and fee reduction" package for the information and communication industry won unanimous praise online and offline, and the most popular issue was the cancellation of data "roaming" fees. In response, telecom operators quickly stated that they would make every effort to implement and speed up the implementation, which is expected to be implemented before July 1 this year.

How to implement it and how to promote it? Why can't it be implemented immediately? Why does it still take 4 months? The reporter interviewed professionals and learned that the cancellation of traffic "roaming" fees, the transformation of speed, billing accuracy, and business transformation are all essential. We must take concrete actions to benefit the majority of users and contribute to the digital China.

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Cancelled before July 1! Four "compulsory" subjects are accelerated

On March 6, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gave a deadline for the cancellation of data "roaming" fees in an interview: July 1. "We will push basic telecommunications companies to speed up package sorting and adjustment, system development and transformation, testing and business verification, and other related work to ensure that the majority of users can enjoy the benefits of this fee reduction before July 1."

Statistics show that as of December 2017, there were 1.417 billion mobile phone users in my country, of which 753 million were mobile Internet users, and the average weekly Internet usage time of Internet users increased to 27 hours. It can be said that using mobile phones to access the Internet has become a "style" for all people, and canceling the "roaming" fee for data traffic is also a project involving the entire network.

"This work involves complex business and system transformation and other preparatory work, which will take some time." An information and communication technology expert told reporters that the cancellation of data "roaming" fees, which covers almost the entire network, is a large-scale information system development and transformation project with very high requirements for security, stability and timeliness. In fact, there is a lot of work to be done, and generally at least four necessary steps are required: package sorting, business rule formulation, system development and transformation, and billing accuracy verification. "The number of packages of each of these three operators is considerable, and there are many supporting systems, and the user base involved is also very wide."

The reporter learned from an insider of a telecom operator that the cancellation of the data "roaming" fee requires more than 50,000 tariff packages of one operator alone to be modified, involving hundreds of millions of users. "System transformation is more complicated, requiring adjustments to the first-level capability open platform, first-level customer service, first-level financial analysis and other first-level systems, as well as billing and accounting management, customer interaction management, mobile phone business halls and other about 20 provincial systems in each province." Preliminary calculations show that there are about 10 first-level systems and more than 600 provincial systems that need to be transformed and upgraded.

The reporter called the news contact of the relevant telecom operator and learned that the above-mentioned "compulsory" subjects cannot be carried out in parallel, but the communication technicians are working overtime and optimizing the process to minimize the time of each link and complete the joint debugging of multiple systems across the country as soon as possible to ensure that the billing method that distinguishes between national and local mobile phone traffic is eliminated across the network before July 1.

Accurate billing is more important than rushing progress

On September 1 last year, my country completely abolished domestic long-distance roaming charges for mobile phones, which was completed one month ahead of schedule. The system transformation of telecom operators took about 6 months. This time, the cancellation of traffic "roaming" charges has reserved about 4 months for system transformation, which reduces the time by one third. However, many users still hope that it will be faster.

Indeed, the sooner the dividends are realized, the better. However, information and communication technology experts remind: "Accurate billing is more important than rushing the progress. This is a project involving hundreds of millions of users. It must be completed step by step in accordance with technical specifications, accurately and orderly." It is understood that when telecom operators adjust tariffs, they must conduct multiple rounds of testing and business verification after the system transformation is launched, including fault tolerance, anti-interference capabilities, and accuracy of bill details, to ensure that users are provided with "telecom-grade" services. "When canceling the domestic long-distance roaming charges for mobile phones, the operator conducted an accuracy check of all billing scenarios for all tariff packages involved, and the results were still very good. The billing test time for canceling the traffic 'roaming' fee this time will also take at least 1 month."

Experts suggest that telecom operators cannot just focus on "technology control". While doing a good job in system development and transformation, they also need to do a good job in training customer service personnel and promptly meet new service demands that may arise from users.

Reform and transformation are becoming more urgent

For the majority of users, the benefit of fee reduction is not just the cancellation of data "roaming" fees.

During this year's Two Sessions, Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out in an interview with the media in the "Minister's Channel" that my country's efforts to increase speed and reduce fees have achieved remarkable results in the past three years. This year, China will increase its efforts to speed up the network and reduce fees, further implement relevant measures, and respond to user concerns.

It is reported that in addition to canceling the data "roaming" fee, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will also encourage basic telecommunications companies to continue to promote large-data Internet cards, tiered data usage and other data rate reduction measures to ensure that mobile network data charges will be reduced by at least 30% within the year. At the same time, more and more preferential special broadband service products will be launched for enterprises to continue to reduce the costs of enterprise broadband and dedicated lines.

Speed ​​up and reduce fees, "increase" the competitiveness of enterprises, and "reduce" the total social cost. As the backbone of the construction of Digital China, telecom operators have an unshirkable responsibility, and the new measures of speed up and reduce fees also require them to further accelerate the pace of reform and transformation: after the unified charging standards and unified package system for traffic, how to meet the differentiated needs of various regions and adjust the management model that is not suitable for enterprises? The gap between volume and revenue continues to widen, how to innovate the way of traffic management? The loss of traffic dividends is accelerating, how to develop new businesses and expand new blue oceans... New challenges are also new opportunities. The telecommunications industry can only seek development by constantly innovating and transforming, building an information infrastructure and smart service system that meets the needs of people for a better life, and providing strong support for solving the main contradictions in our society.