en.Wedoany.com Reported - The rumor circulating on social media that "the three major telecom operators are about to completely cancel monthly rents" has intensified recently. Several short videos claim that China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom will fully switch to a zero monthly rent, pay-as-you-go billing model starting June 2026. After verification by Wedoany, currently only China Unicom has launched a pay-as-you-go product called "Magic Cube," which has zero monthly rent but includes a minimum spending threshold. China Mobile and China Telecom have not launched similar plans, and there is no specific timeline as rumored online.
China Unicom's "Magic Cube" product was released on April 28, with its main selling points being "transparent handling, worry-free usage, and drag-and-drop flexibility." Voice calls, data, and SMS/MMS are all billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. The specific rates are: domestic voice calls at 0.1 yuan/minute, SMS/MMS at 0.1 yuan/message, and domestic data using a tiered pricing structure—1.5 yuan/GB for the first 20GB, 1.2 yuan/GB for the portion between 20GB and 50GB, and dropping to 1 yuan/GB after exceeding 50GB. However, although "Magic Cube" removes the monthly rent, it imposes a minimum monthly spending requirement, which is 55 yuan in the Beijing area and 39 yuan in some other regions. Taking a Beijing user as an example, if the 55 yuan minimum spending is used entirely for data, it can support approximately 41GB; if used entirely for calls, it would require a cumulative 9 hours and 10 minutes of calling to cover the cost. Meanwhile, China Unicom's existing monthly plan system has not been abolished.
The claims in the online rumors that China Telecom would pilot "Tianyi Pay-As-You-Go" nationwide on June 1, and that China Mobile would start piloting in June with nationwide coverage by the end of September, have both been denied by the two companies. Guangzhou Mobile customer service clearly stated that the current lowest plan is 29 yuan, including 50 minutes of calls and 3GB of data; Beijing Telecom customer service pointed out that the current lowest plan is the 5 yuan Worry-Free Card plan. Relevant heads of both companies have also confirmed to Wedoany that there are no plans to launch zero monthly rent packages, and the related online information is false.
The industry has long reached a conclusion on the feasibility of "zero monthly rent." Veteran telecom observer Fu Liang bluntly stated that a "zero monthly rent" completely detached from minimum spending is not only difficult to achieve but would also shift network maintenance costs onto other users. Telecom operators invest tens of billions of yuan annually in network maintenance. Even if a user does not use the service, the network operates 24/7, and the cost must be amortized in some way. Communications expert Xiang Ligang also pointed out that phone numbers and spectrum are national public resources that require usage fees, and a completely zero monthly rent would lead to severe resource waste. For users who frequently use the network, plans are essentially wholesale discounts. If plans were completely abolished in favor of pure pay-as-you-go billing, users might actually face tariff increases.
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