Spring is coming, the cancellation of data roaming charges? Beware of scams

Mr. Dongguo and the wolf, Lu Dongbin and the dog, the farmer and the snake, Hao Jian and the old lady, um, and the old user and the dog... Don't take it personally, any coincidences are purely for entertainment.

Spring has come for old users

After waiting and waiting, the spring for old users has arrived.

On the morning of March 5, Premier Li Keqiang proposed in his government work report that data "roaming" fees should be abolished and mobile network data charges should be reduced by at least 30% within the year. The general public forwarded this major welfare news, and many netizens cried and praised it, saying "Mom doesn't have to worry about my data charges anymore."

At this time last year, when it was announced that "all domestic long-distance and roaming charges for mobile phones will be cancelled within the year", it also caused heated discussion and received likes. However, with the continuous development of mobile Internet, the proportion of users' voice call charges has become lower and lower, while data charges have continued to rise. At this time, the policy of "reducing data charges" was introduced, which was warmer than the spring breeze in the hearts of old users.

The three major operators were also very supportive and collectively stated on the same day: take immediate action and go all out!

China Mobile:

We will resolutely implement the requirements put forward in this year's Government Work Report to increase network speed and reduce fees, and make every effort to promote full coverage of high-speed broadband in urban and rural areas, significantly reduce the usage fees of household broadband, enterprise broadband and dedicated lines, cancel data "roaming" fees, and reduce mobile network data charges by at least 30% within the year.

China Unicom:

We will resolutely implement the state's policy requirements and work arrangements on speeding up and reducing fees, actively take corresponding measures, and make speeding up and reducing fees a key task to promote with all our strength.

China Telecom:

We will resolutely implement the national policy requirements of "speeding up and reducing fees" and will take immediate action and go all out to ensure that relevant measures are fully implemented as soon as possible.

Are the old users excited and feeling the light of love?

Why is it called the spring for old users?

You don’t understand the pain in the hearts of old users! Because of the existence of Internet packages, the price difference in traffic charges between new and old users is too large.

Take Beijing Mobile's U card service as an example. Its 1G local traffic costs only 1 yuan, and 1G national traffic costs only 4 yuan. However, in the unified package for old users, the 4G package with 1G national traffic costs 128 yuan per month, and the traffic price difference is 32 times.

The same is true for China Unicom. Take the King Card jointly launched by China Unicom and Tencent as an example. It costs 98 yuan per month, including 6G data traffic and 1,000 minutes of talk time. The monthly package for old users costs 166 yuan, including 2G national data traffic and 500 minutes of talk time. The price of the Internet package is nearly half cheaper than that of the old user package, but it has twice the data traffic and 1 times the talk time. The advantage is very obvious.

However, these attractive packages are generally only available to new users (they envy new users who always live in spring), which has caused dissatisfaction among old users, resulting in many user complaints about "carriers' unfair terms". Now, the introduction of the "data flow fee reduction" policy is equivalent to greater benefits and more discounts for old users who have higher fees, which is tantamount to timely assistance.

But, have your phone bills really dropped?

In fact, data charges are decreasing year by year, but have you felt the reduction in phone charges?

In the process of speed increase and fee reduction in the past few years, the 30% reduction in traffic charges is not particularly surprising, and the communication expenses paid by consumers have not decreased due to the fee reduction.

According to the financial reports of the three major operators and the public data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the average data traffic charges of the three major operators were 134.7 yuan/GB, 78.1 yuan/GB, 47.88 yuan/GB and 28 yuan/GB in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively, and the rate of reduction in the three years from 2015 to 2017 was 42%, 38.7% and 41.5% respectively. However, the traffic revenue of the operators did not decline due to the reduction in charges.

In 2014, the total traffic revenue of the three major operators was 243.87 billion yuan, and in 2015 and 2016, it was 301.69 billion yuan and 423.041 billion yuan, respectively, up 23.7% and 40% year-on-year. Relying on the principle of small profits but quick turnover, the traffic revenue of operators is still growing rapidly. You see, the cost has been falling, but the call fee has been rising. The main reasons are:

1. The data traffic fee reduction is not for the basic package, but to lower the average price by launching other packages;
2. User packages will not be changed directly. Even if there is a more favorable package, you still cannot enjoy it if you do not change it;
3. Traffic costs are decreasing, but speeds are increasing. More traffic is consumed in the same amount of time, so the cost is naturally higher.

These are the tricks you need to know

The traffic of the three major domestic operators, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, is divided into national unified traffic and local traffic (usually by province), and the two types of traffic cannot be switched. Therefore, when "roaming" outside the local area, users may face the situation that even if the local traffic has not been used up, the national traffic is not enough and they still need to purchase traffic again.

The cancellation of data traffic "roaming fees" will benefit a very wide range of people, "from users with monthly mobile charges of 10 yuan to users with monthly mobile charges of 150 yuan may all become beneficiaries."

However, before officially cancelling, you still need to pay attention to your local and national traffic usage, and order them correctly to avoid overcharges.

In addition, it should be noted that traffic price reduction does not mean that operators will significantly reduce the sales price of traffic and the price of basic packages, but rather launch a variety of business strategies such as daily traffic packages, superimposed packages, free local traffic, off-peak traffic, etc. on the basis of existing packages to achieve a controllable price reduction.

So after the price reduction, you may find that the unit price of traffic remains unchanged. At this time, don’t shout “routine”. Just go and consult about the local package, and you can enjoy the benefits of the policy by making reasonable changes.