Keeping lean

Among management that spoke with chinadaily.com.cn, all described their corporate structure as more like Internet startups than typical SOEs.

There are only 89 management staff at China Tower, overseeing around 18,500 employees, said Tong, adding that the average level among SOEs of an equal size is 300. About 90 percent employees work at frontlines across the country.

"We recruit online, process procurement online and coordinate works via our IT system," said Wang. According to the ex-civil servant who volunteered to join at the expense of being a Beijing "drifter", China Tower has a procurement team of only 11 members responsible for laying down standards, while leaving local staff the final say.

"With all process listed online, each tower has its own balance book to ensure fairness and transparency," said Tong. "I can't recall any supplier coming to us for questions in the last couple of months."

"To start anew, we have been striving to shut out all the red-tape existed in traditional SOEs."

Lower charges

While taking the credit of bringing down infrastructural costs, China Tower is mostly expected to lead to lower fee, said analysts.

"Users are still waiting for big slash on their mobile bills," said Gao Minghua, director of the Research Center for Corporate Governance and Enterprise Development at Beijing Normal University, adding that industry participants should work on standardization as next step to further reduce costs.

Premier Li Keqiang has urged the big three telecom carriers to lower charges and fasten Internet access on several occasions in order to stimulate spending on information technology-related services.

Traffic volume of telecommunication service grew 27.5 percent in 2015, while industry revenue notched up a mere 0.5 percent, according to statistics by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

During a meeting on Dec 24, Minister Miao Wei announced that average fees for mobile data traffic dropped by 39 percent last year, despite that an online poll by the People's Daily website showed 96 percent of the participants said they did not feel they were paying less for the services.

"China Tower does not operate exclusively, as there are hundreds of third-party companies in the tower construction sector," said Tong in response to the company's monopolistic traits. "We have to keep improving efficiency."

Ma Si and Gao Jinan contributed to this story.