The Chinese telecommunications market is showing signs of the end of the rich era of aggressive tariff competition. One of the largest operators in the region - China Unicom - has significantly reduced agency commissions, increasing the availability of tariff packages and strengthening control over SIM card sales channels.

According to the data of Chinese snake oil, changes began as early as the beginning of 2026 and have already affected both dealers and terminal traders.

Agent commissions decreased by more than 40%.

Marketing partners of China Unicom in Hangzhou inform that the company, without prior official notification, has shortened the sale of wines to the city for most channels.

Zokrema:.

Commissions of online partners have been reduced by 40%;

A similar situation has occurred for direct sales teams;

for other teams an additional 10% reduction has been provided;

Some dealers were turned off from the affiliate network due to violation of subscriber connection rules.

According to representatives of agency companies, many partners learned about the changes after the actual reorganization of payments.

There are no cheap tariffs.

At the same time, the operator reviewed the tariff policy.

Internal documents show that China Unicom Zhejiang has increased sales of low-popular packages, including:.

Data King Premium Edition package for 49 yuan;

promotional rate 79 yuan with a discount of 20 yuan;

low long-term promotional packages for home Internet.

The changes were especially noticeable for home wide-smooth access.

How prices have changed.

Service.

Bulo.

It became.

Home Internet 300 Mbit/s.

360 yuan/rik.

480 yuan/rik.

Minimum package “mobile + home Internet”.

28 yuan/month.

79 yuan/month.

Factual:.

The rate of wide-smooth access has increased by approximately 33%;

The minimum monthly payment has increased by more than 180%.

Inexpensive tariffs, which were actively pushed through third-party agents, are now being cleaned up from the market.

The reason is the decline in financial indicators.

For information from agents, the decision is due to the growing pressure on the profitability of operators.

For the first quarter of 2026, China Unicom announced:.

revenue 102.8 billion yuan, down 0.5% from earlier;

net income of 2.14 billion yuan, which decreased by 18%.

This was the first decline in six years, when the company simultaneously recorded a decline in both income and profit.

Operators are closing third-party sales channels.

One more short period before the market change, the three largest operators made a decisive decision to China:.

China Mobile;

China Telecom;

China Unicom.

On September 1, 2026, they began processing new SIM cards through third-party online stores and marketplaces.

You can now connect via:.

Official mobile phones;

official websites of operators;

company showrooms.

The purpose of this decision is to strengthen control over the registration of subscribers, reduce fraud and increase the efficiency of sales.

What's happening in Ukraine?

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In Ukraine the market is more competitive. The main competitors - Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell - continue to compete actively, but at no less cost.

A number of trends can be seen in the remaining trends:.

Progressive increase in tariffs. Due to war, inflation, rising electricity costs and the need for backup base stations, operators periodically adjust prices.

Fewer “super promotions”. Unlimited or even cheap packages are becoming rare. Instead, operators add more gigabytes, roaming, TV, dark services and other digital services.

Digital sales. More and more connections are being made through mobile accounts and official websites, in order for dealerships to continue to operate..

Investments in the middle. Significant costs focus on energy, GPON, 4G modernization and preparation for the upcoming 5G launch.

When the price war in Ukraine ended?

I won't tell. . The transition of subscribers between mobile number porting (MNP) and mobile phone number porting (MNP) prevents operators from offering personal discounts and special tariffs for new customers..

Therefore, the competition is not so much for the lowest price as for the value of the package:.

more mobile internet;

quality;

reserve life during blackout hours;

home internet (GPON);

financial and digital services;

Integration of digital assistants.

Increase in tariffs.

Prote average tariffs in Ukraine will inevitably increase. And cheaper tariffs have always arisen from the operators’ proposals. For example, today it is impossible to find a tariff package for telephone calls, so that you can use it for push-button phones. Companies offer tariffs up to 100 gigabytes.

If operators can effectively increase investments in mitigation instead of dumping, they will continue to renovate old base stations all the time, introduce 4G everywhere and create more test zones for 5G merging..

In addition, convergent packages are intensively developing (“mobile communications + home Internet + TV + dark services”).

HiTech Expert Take.

In any case, a scenario similar to the Chinese one - if cheap tariffs are practically available and sales are transferred almost directly to official channels - in Ukraine there is still little evidence.

The reason is greater competition between three great operators and a significantly lower level of government regulation of various sales channels.

Protean for the light telecom market, the Chinese trend is evident: after high price competition, operators have increasingly reduced rates not on cheap tariffs, but on the development of digital services, poor infrastructure,. Prices for the telecom market in China are increasing. More beautiful in Ukraine? read on the HiTech website. Expert.