communications including telephone, radio, radar and electronics. In many cases specifications were prepared for the equipment recommended and tenders examined for the departments concerned.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
TELEPHONES
106. The internal telephone service in the Colony is provided by the Hong Kong Telephone Company, Limited, a public company opera- ing under a franchise from the Hong Kong Government.
107. The system is fully automatic and composed of some 113,000 stations at 31st March, 1961. Service is provided from seven major exchanges, three of which are located in Victoria and four in Kowloon, whilst service in outlying areas, including the New Territories, is pro- vided from a number of satellite exchanges, all of which are also fully automatic.
108. Major exchanges under construction include a new exchange to serve the North Point area and a replacement for the existing Waterloo Road Exchange. In addition to this, extensions to existing major and satellite exchanges are either on order or being planned. There include a replacement for the existing Central Exchange together with three new major exchanges, two of which will be in Kowloon and one in Victoria.
109. Despite increasing costs, charges have not been increased since 1955 and remain amongst the lowest in the world, being $300 per annum for a Business Line and $225 per annum for a Residential Line, local calls being unlimited in number and free of charge except in remote outlying areas where a message rate is applied.
110. In addition to providing the internal telephone service of the Colony, the Hong Kong Telephone Company, Limited, provides radio- telephone service to most parts of the world in co-operation with Cable and Wireless Limited.
TELEPHONE ALLOCATION BOARD
111. The above Board which deals with all Government telephone requirements continued to operate under the Chairmanship of the Postmaster General (ex-officio) and now has under its jurisdiction over 4,900 telephone circuits. The Board also gave technical advice to departments requiring private inter-communication telephone systems.
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