The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology responded to netizens: Caller ID fees will be gradually eliminated within 3-5 years

Recently, a netizen of People's Daily Online posted a message on the "Leader Message Board" asking "When will the caller ID fee be cancelled?" He said: "Now that we have entered the 5G era, most of the current packages have reduced or exempted the caller ID fee, but there are still a few early packages with additional caller ID fees. I hope that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology can reduce or exempt the caller ID fees of other packages under the arrangement of speeding up and reducing fees."

In response, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said: "Our ministry attaches great importance to users' opinions and suggestions on caller ID fees." It is understood that since 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has promoted basic telecommunications companies to give away or include caller ID services in new and on-sale packages, no longer charging extra fees, and gradually promoted the migration of existing users. So far, caller ID charges only exist in some old packages that have not been migrated and have been discontinued, accounting for less than 2%.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced that in order to implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee on comprehensively deepening reform and improving the mechanism in which prices are mainly determined by the market, in 2014 the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Notice on the Implementation of Market-Adjusted Prices for Telecommunications Service Charges" (MIIT China Unicom [2014] No. 182), which liberalized all telecommunications service charges and implemented market regulation. Telecommunications companies will formulate prices based on market conditions and user needs, and will no longer set prices by the government.

It is reported that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also stated that the next step will be to continue to promote basic telecommunications companies to further expand the scope of free users through the migration of old packages, replacement of voice traffic resources with caller ID, etc., and gradually cancel the caller ID fee within 3-5 years.