China Mobile slashes Britain roaming fees for Olympics

 BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- China Mobile, the nation's largest mobile telecommunications company, announced on Thursday it would cut its roaming service charges in Britain for the next two months, during which the Olympic Games will be held.

Subscribers who use Vodafone's network will have to pay only 0.99 yuan (0.16 U.S. dollars) per minute for phone calls made or received during July 1 and August 31. Subscribers usually pay 1.99 yuan to make a call to the Chinese mainland.

Costs for sending a text message to the Chinese mainland will be lowered by 62 percent to 0.15 yuan. Receiving messages will be free.

Charges for the GPRS Internet roaming service will be slashed¹ by 90 percent to 1 yuan per megabyte.

China Mobile said the move was a result of tough negotiations² between itself and overseas telecommunications operators.

1 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。