China’s three operators have committed to sizeable reductions to their data prices, as well as improving network speeds, following political pressure from the country’s leadership, said Reuters.

The move by China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom could spur the take-up of 4G in the country.

A month ago China’s Premier Li Keqiang criticised the mobile internet for being too expensive and not speedy enough.

His comments were then followed up by the State Council, the country’s cabinet, which this week called on operators to boost internet speeds by 40 per cent, expand broadband access in rural areas and cut prices by the end of the year.

Now the operators have responded. China Mobile, the country’s largest operator by subscribers, said it would reduce mobile data prices by 35 per cent or more by the end of 2015.

China Unicom plans a drop of 20 per cent or more per Mb/s of data. China Telecom said its subscriber costs for data will fall by an average 30 per cent per Mb/s.