On roaming charges, he pressed a hot button

He calls himself a "big mouth". Industry insiders dub him a "loose cannon". And mobile-phone users see him as their flag-bearer.

Kan Kaili, 63, is a telecommunications professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT).

And his latest brush with fame is because his article last February on sohu.com claimed that roaming "costs zero" for China Mobile and called for roaming fees to be abolished.