The so-called “unlimited flow package”, in fact, the mode is “speed reduction.”
Since this month, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have stopped selling “unlimited traffic packages”. This is a new development in the task of speeding up the fee reduction for the three major operators in China.
China Telecom directly announced that it will stop selling the limited-speed version of the enjoyment package nationwide; China Mobile has launched a new regular version of the enjoyment package, which exceeds the flow rate of the package for a similar step-by-step pricing method; China Unicom plans The launch of the refreshing ice cream assured version of the package, in fact, also stopped selling “unlimited traffic packages.”
The so-called “unlimited traffic package”, the actual mode is “speed reduction”: after the domestic high-speed traffic is used in the month, the domestic Internet access rate will drop to no more than 1Mbps, and can be used free of charge, automatically reply at the beginning of the next month. rate.
After the speed reduction, the user can purchase the domestic traffic speed-up package, the recovery rate after ordering, and slow down again after the traffic in the speed-up package is used. After the total domestic traffic usage reaches 100GB in that month, the domestic Internet access rate will drop to no more than 128kbps, and the speed cannot be increased in the current month. The speed-up package cannot be ordered, and the rate is automatically restored at the beginning of the next month.
In other words, although the excess traffic does not add money, it will be very slow. If you want to speed up, you still have to add money. If you don’t add money, the speed may be slow until you brush up on Weibo.
This charging model was first introduced by China Unicom and brought a large number of 4G users to China Unicom in 2017. Subsequently, China Mobile and China Telecom also launched similar products. In 2017, the revenues and profits of the three major operators increased.
But the problem with this model is also obvious. First of all, it is very misleading from its name. In August 2018, the Hunan Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce conducted an administrative interview with Hunan Telecom, Hunan Mobile, and Hunan Unicom. Hunan Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce believes that the three major operators repeatedly publicize and promote the “unlimited amount of flow” package products in the advertisements, and the advertisements do not express the “speed reduction” and “stop the flow usage function”. The use of critical information such as the use of closed Internet access has caused serious misleading to consumers.
The existence of the “unlimited traffic package” has been controversial, and now the controversy is finally over. Now, the online business halls of the three major operators have changed the slogan to , “the amount does not slow down, no need to collect money.”
About the reason for this change, a spokesperson for China Telecom said that with the increasing use of Internet applications, the use of user traffic continues to grow, and the rate requirements are higher. The original speed reduction package can no longer satisfy users. demand.
The three major operators are also responding to the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In July of this year, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom announced the “speed-up and reduction transcripts”. Compared with five years ago, the average speed of fixed and mobile broadband downloads has increased by more than 6 times in terms of network speedup; Fixed networkBoth the network and mobile Internet traffic tariffs have fallen by more than 90%, and users use mobile traffic to 7.2GB per month, which is 1.2 times the global average.
People use more traffic, but pay less. In 2019, China Mobile’s first-quarter earnings report showed that China Mobile’s mobile Internet traffic increased by 172% over the same period of the previous year, and mobile Internet DOU reached 5.7GB, an increase of 162% over the same period of the previous year. Conversely, the money earned by mobile from each user (ARPU) continues to decrease, dropping to RMB 50.3. Last year, this figure was reduced from 58.1 yuan to 55.7 yuan in 10 months.
Response to income, China Mobile’s revenue in the first quarter of this year was 185 billion yuan, down 0.3% from the same period of last year; net profit was 23.7 billion yuan, down 8.3% year-on-year.