China’s three mobile operators will end domestic consumer roaming charges by October and offer pricing incentives to encourage the use of enterprise cloud technology in the country, Bloomberg reported.

Speaking to reporters on the day the government unveiled new sector initiatives at the opening of the National People’s Congress, the chairmen of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom confirmed they would end surcharges levied on cross-province services and long distance domestic calls.

The measures are part of an official bid to cut consumer costs and encourage use of new technologies by companies across China. As part of the initiative, operators will offer price incentives to small- and medium-sized businesses to encourage the use of next generation networking technology, including cloud computing.

Alongside the press conference from the country’s network providers, China’s Ministry of Industry and Technology announced it had given the green light for a number of private companies to market and sell telecoms services. In a pilot scheme, 198 private enterprises have been approved to supply broadband services.

The China Daily reported comments from China’s Premier Li Keqiang highlighting the government’s intent to enable more cost effective communications, which includes the elimination of roaming and reduction of long-distance call changes discussed by China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.

Li said: “In the age of internet, faster and more cost-effective information networks are crucial to the development of every sector.”