November 9, 2011
Translated by Pang Lei

The National Development and Reform Commission have officially launched an anti-monopoly investigation into China's two fixed-line telecommunications companies - China Unicom and China Telecom, according to the "News 30 minutes" program that was aired at noon today on the CCTV News Channel.

The investigation will focus on the charges that the two companies charge for internet service provision and will investigate whether the companies have abused their monopoly position in the market. Officials from the NDRC's Price Supervision office and Anti-monopoly office told CCTV that, both China Telecom and Unicom were earning a lot of revenue from their internet business, with China Telecom making about 50 billion in profits and China Unicom around 30 billion. The officials went on to say that if the state-owned firms were found to have abused their monopoly position, then they would be fined between 1 and 10 percent of that figure.

It's possible that both companies could face up to billions of yuan in fines.

Links and Sources
CCTV: 发改委正对中国电信和中国联通反垄断调查