A new technology is expected to soon bring more convenience to daily life and significantly reduce spending on telecommunications £¬according to what visitors were told at the China VoIP 2001£¬held last week£¬ as the latest Business Weekly reported.

Although it sounds very technical £¬ VoIP £¨voice over Internet protocol£© has already entered consumers' daily lives in China. Last year £¬ the IP card - a prepaid Internet telephone card and one of the most frequently used VoIP technologies - became a must-have for many Chinese phone users due to its low cost and high convenience.

Using an IP card can save up to 70 per cent of the cost to call your friends or relatives in a remote city or country.

VoIP is a communication technology based on the Internet in which voice signals are sent by packages instead of individual data£¬ which reduces costs for both customers and operators.

Chinese operators introduced IP cards to local customers two years ago £¬ but the usage has only recently seen rapid growth when the managing Ministry of Information Industry £¨MII £© decided to give the pricing rights for IP business to operators earlier this year.

"China will soon become the biggest VoIP market and every company wants to cut a slice of the cake£¬" said Simon Naylor£¬ vice-president of the US-based VoIP provider£¬ Sonus Networks.

The company is one of the attendants of the annual conference China VoIP 2001 £¬ which was in its fourth session.

"Sonus will establish offices in China within two or three months£¬" said Naylor £¬ "We could not afford to lose this market."

Six of China's seven basic telecoms operators £¬ China Telecom£¬ China Unicom£¬ China Netcom £¬ China Mobile £¬ Jitong and the newcomer China Railcom£¬ have all obtained licences from the MII to operate VoIP business.

Severe competition started this year in the IP market with China Netcom's first price cut of up to 50 per cent.

Jitong and China Unicom had to follow the move.

Beside price cutting£¬ IP cards were sold at a discounted rate of their face value£¬ some are even half of the price printed on the card.

"IP telephony is China's first telecoms sector that has achieved fair competition £¬" said Xie Xiaoxia£¬ a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences £¨CASS£©¡£

"When prices of different operators are almost equal£¬ new services are the key to attract or attain customers £¬" said Xie.

IP telephony is just the most basic services of VoIP technology£¬ more value-added services are still due to be launched in this market£¬ said Naylor of Sonus £¬ who agreed with the CASS researcher.

When you are surfing the Internet with your telephone line and a friend calls you£¬ a signal appears on the computer screen telling you that a phone call is waiting. You could then choose to answer the phone first or carry on your network surfing.

Or when you listen to the voice mail left by your friends or clients£¬ the programme will ask £º "Will you call the person back or turn to the next mail £¿"

All these value-added services are not yet on the Chinese market but with the six operators' competition becoming more severe£¬ they will lose no time to introduce more new services to attract customers.

According to statistics from the International Telecom Union £¨ITU £©£¬ the most respective telecoms organization£¬ the percentage of IP phones among total international audio transmissions has already exceeded 3 per cent.

"Actually £¬ the VoIP technology has posed some detriments to the traditional telephone service providers£¬ especially those in the developing countries £¬" said ITU.