The China Unicom Beijing branch has published a notice and says starting from September 1, 2009, the branch launched new charging policies for long-distance calls to cut mobile phone communication fees.

Prior to this, China Unicom's long-distance call fee consisted of two parts, the long-distance communication fee and the local communication fee. However, with the new charging policies, the local communication fee will no longer be charged, which is expected to save costs of between 36% and 51% for users. The new policies are applicable for both domestic and international long-distance calls.

According to a customer service employee from China Unicom Beijing, for different brands, the new charging policies will not be the same. For pre-paid brands such as U-Power and Ruyi Tong, the long-distance call fee will be decreased by between 36% and 51% to CNY0.6 per minute; while for post-paid World Wind brand, the fee will be decreased by 36% to CNY0.7 per minute.

At present, the new charging policies are available for users of U-Power and Ruyi Tong as well as those who select World Wind's 156 package and business travel package. This new long-distance call charging model will soon be further expanded to China Unicom Beijing's entire GSM network.