He Ning, general manager of China Mobile Beijing branch, told local media that the company has still not reached an agreement with the Beijing Subway authorities on the allowing mobile phone signlas in the newly-built Line 10 subway.

He says that there is a wide gap between the quoted prices of the two sides and the negotiations have reached an impasse. As a wireless service operator, China Mobile is eager to achieve phone signal coverage in Line 10 and the company is seeking aid from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Beijing government. A representative from Beijing Subway says that according to the international practice, telecommunications operators should pay entrance fees when entering an underground space that provides signal support to them. Therefore, they want China Mobile to fork over some cash.

According to the report in local media, the Beijing Subway purchased equipment and constructed the communications platform itself without communicating with telecom operators and wanted to lease the platform to operators after the opening of the subway.

Starting operations on July 19, 2008, the first stage project of Beijing's subway Line 10 is a 25-kilometer project with 22 stations that links the eastern and northern parts of Beijing. The Olympic line and Airport line are another two new subway lines opened at the same time. All the three subway lines directly serve the glorious 2008 Olympic Games.