China's Ministry of Information Industry and the National Development and Reform Commission say they will hold a joint hearing in late January in Beijing on the reduction of mobile phone roaming fees.

The hearing is said to consist of representatives for consumers, business operators, experts and scholars and people from the concerned government departments, and the detailed measure will be published after the hearing materials are delivered to each of the representatives.

Currently, the maximum charge for mobile phone roaming service in China is RMB0.8 per minute for pre-paid users and RMB0.6 per minute for other users, which both the industry professionals and the consumers believe are too high. Though MII listed the evaluation of the maximum roaming fee for domestic calls as one of its key tasks in 2007, it failed to finish the work by the end of last year.