The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of the Information Industry have announced a slashing of the price ceiling for domestic mobile phone roaming fees.

Officials say a public hearing will be held in mid or late January in Beijing to hear the scheme proposed by the two ministries and will then determine what price ceiling to adopt.

Those in attendance will include phone users, signal carriers, experts and delegates from related departments.

Kan Kaili, a professor at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications explains exactly what a roaming fee is - and why he believes it should not be charged for.

If a Beijing phone user goes to Shanghai, his qualification for making a phone call in Shanghai will be checked by the two cities' carriers by transferring and confirming the user's information. We call this process roaming fees. The cost of roaming is quite low; in fat near to zero. It should be free.

The authorities have greatly reduced charges for incoming calls in recent times, but many phone users believe that the roaming fee is still too high and should be cut drastically, or become free of charge.