China Netcom Beijing branch and Beijing Municipal Administration and Communications Card Co, Ltd. have jointly launched a new service, which is focused on using the communications card as an IC phone card.

With the communications card, citizens in Beijing can make a phone call on more than 5,000 IC card telephones that are marked with the sign of municipal administration and communications card. The service covers the terminals of Beijing Capital International Airport, Olympic stadiums, the Olympic Village, bus stations, areas along Chang'an Avenue and the second and third rings of Beijing.

To make a phone call, the communications card users only need to insert the card in the slot of the IC card phone. The fees for making a local call is CNY0.2 for the first three minutes and CNY0.1 per minute from the fourth minute; and the fee for a domestic long-distance call — Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are not included — is CNY0.2 per minute.

China Netcom Beijing branch says that one reason for launching this service is to offer convenience to the Beijing citizens and the other is to implement the idea of a "Scientific Olympics" and to promote the technology development of Beijing.