According to reports from the government’s official Xinhua News Agency, China will allow its telecoms operators to start setting their own tariff structures from as early as next month. In a joint decision, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and the country’s primary economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, have said that the four main operators – China Telecom Corp, China Mobile (Hong Kong), China Unicom and China Netcom – will be allowed to set their own tariffs from 1 October 2005, with the sole condition that the new tariffs will be restricted to a maximum fee per minute, to be determined by the relative government agencies involved. China is keen to deregulate its tariff structures to foster competition among its national carriers ahead of a planned restructuring of the telecoms industry later this year. However, industry analysts agree that the new ruling will not have a major impact as intense competition is already driving prices down in a Chinese market that is fast approaching maturity.