China Netcom's Beijing office has fired the first salvo in a summer price competition to get new users.

The company announced that from May 30 to June 30, it would provide an Annual Preferred Card service to its 512k and 1M ADSL service subscribers. After the subscribers pay 10 months' fee (CNY1200 or CNY1500) in one schedule, they can enjoy a whole year's (12 months) service.

At the same time, the company will also exempt new ADSL applicants of the CNY300 initial fee if they pay for ten months at the beginning of their service contracts.

This is the largest promotion China Netcom has ever launched in Beijing, so the market response to this is still unknown.