CHINA Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier, said yesterday it will cut roaming fee from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong by up to 70 percent starting on Friday.

The fee cut comes in the wake of China Mobile's purchase of a Hong Kong-based carrier Peoples.

A call to the mainland from Hong Kong will only cost 3.99 yuan (49 US cents) a minute under the new fee structure, down from 17.4 yuan. Mainland users who receive a call in Hong Kong will pay 2.19 yuan a minute starting on Friday, down from the current 5.04 yuan.

Sending a message from Hong Kong to the mainland will cost about 1.20 yuan, down from 3.70 yuan, the company's local arm, Shanghai Mobile, said in a statement yesterday.

"The increased user base allows us to drop the rate and it meets the demands of clients," Shanghai Mobile said.

As of June, China Mobile had 274 million users, a number that grew by 4.29 million every month during the first half of this year.

More than 386,000 Shanghai residents visit Hong Kong and Macau annually according to 2005 Shanghai Statistics, a government report.

In October, China Mobile spent HK$3.34 billion (US$535 million) to acquire Peoples, which has 1.2 million Hong Kong subscribers.

"The carrier's fees, though cut dramatically, can't compete with Hong Kong carriers so it will focus on high-end business users," said Sandy Shen, a Shanghai-based analyst at Gartner Inc.

Hong Kong carriers charges users less than 1 yuan a minute to call the mainland but mainland mobile users have to change phone numbers in Hong Kong to enjoy that rate.

"Those high-end users, who create the majority of profits for China Mobile, are not willing to change the number," said Shen.

China Unicom has already launched a 1.30-yuan-a-minute fee package for local users in Hong Kong.

Editor: Yan