The Local Taxation Bureau of Dongcheng District and Xicheng District of Beijing have announced that in the first quarter of this year the four basic telecom operators, Beijing Netcom, Beijing Telecom, Beijing Mobile and Beijing Unicom, paid an accumulative total of CNY271 million local tax.

This figure is CNY97.75 million more than the same period last year, increasing by as much as 56.3%.

The telecom operators and the tax departments have also disclosed that a new industry alliance has been formed in Beijing through multi-party cooperation and profit-sharing among telecom operators and information service providers.

They say that they will take the opportunity created by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to improve their service so as to boost tax revenue for the city.