China Telecom faces Internet boycott

A Chinese student is organising a series of 24-hour Internet boycotts in protest at what he claims are prohibitively high call rates, according to reports in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Huang Zheqiang, a student a Nanjing University, is claiming that the state-owned monopoly, China Telecom, charges up to $2 per minute for Internet access calls. He has called on fellow Chinese surfers to stay off the Web on 31 December, and on every subsequent Sunday until the telco reduces its charges.

The move echoes tactics used in recent months by European Net users, with some success. Spanish users forced Telefonica to cut charges, while Germany's Deutsche Telekom abandoned a planned price rise after a Net boycott.