"There is still not enough competition, which has led to telecoms fees being relatively high while there is still a lot of room to improve the quality of service," the statement said, citing an official at China's official State Information Centre.
Sawiris doesn't mind the risks and enjoys the opportunities that come with them: little or no competition, low telecom license fees and minimal fixed-line infrastructures that promise to grow quickly.
Skype has the scale it needs to negotiate lower telecom connection fees around the world, but it needs to ramp up the number of paying customers and convert more free users.
In came some new taxes on goods and services and some much needed modernisation: instead of the current hodgepodge of telecoms taxes and fees created pre-internet, the council recommended a simple 7% excise tax on all communications services.The council did exactly what the politicians told it to do whereupon the politicians discovered a host of pressing other business.
Since 1997, Salomon has taken in more investment banking fees from telecom companies than any other firm on the Street.
This has likely been compounded in the United States by a lack of regulation of the interconnection fees that telecom operators charge each other to let data flow across their networks.
"Service fees for telecom have declined largely due to the introduction of foreign competition, from the likes of [Norway's] Telenor and [the U.K.'s] Orange.
Salomon generated more investment banking fees from telecom companies than any other firm on Wall Street and Spitzer is seeking information about AT&T, Verizon, Worldcom and the bankrupt Global Crossing, among others, the Times says.
For phone service, telecom firms pass the fees directly to their customers, with the average household paying about $3 a month.
