COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
.143
During the year the telephone waiting list was virtually eliminated, the majority of customers being given service within one week of applying. Attention is being focused on serving remote areas and outlying districts, and connection by means of radio links has been established with Po Toi and So Ko Islands. A new cordless international manual board has been introduced to cope with the ever increasing growth in international calls, and direct dialling of international calls will be available to subscribers in 1976. The Hong Kong Telephone Company employs a staff of more than 7,500 in maintaining and expanding its services. It has a training school in Kwun Tong which can accommodate some 300 employees a day.
Early in 1975 the government approved an increase of about 30 per cent in telephone rental charges and varying increases in certain other charges as from March 1-the increases being provisional pending the outcome of a commission of inquiry into the affairs of the Hong Kong Telephone Company. A six-member commission, with Sir Alastair Blair-Kerr as chairman, was appointed by the Governor to examine the company's management and organisation; its debt liabilities and its profitability; the causes of its cash flow problems; the financial implications of its expansion plans; and the adequacy, efficiency and quality of its services. The com- mission was required to recommend what steps should be taken to make the company financially viable and to advise the government on measures necessary to ensure adequate public control over the operations of the company-having regard to its character as a private company providing, on a monopoly basis, a public utility service. After six months' work, the commission submitted its report to the Governor, and the government accepted almost all the recommendations which came within its province.
Overseas telecommunication facilities are provided by Cable and Wireless with 400 telephone and 1,124 telegraph circuits to all parts of the world. A submarine coaxial cable with a capacity of 80 telephone channels extends southwestwards to Singapore and eastwards to Guam where it joins other cable systems to Japan, the United States, the Philippines and Australia. Two satellite earth stations provide direct links to the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean satellites. Facilities are provided to give Hong Kong international transmission and reception of television programmes in either 625/50 PAL or 525/60 NTSC standards in colour or monochrome. Com- munication facilities are also provided for ship-to-shore services and to nearby countries by VHF, tropospheric scatter and HF radio systems.
Facilities for the public telegram service, airline operations and other commercial organisations are provided from the company's message switching centre. The centre has six computer processors and it currently handles 3.8 million messages or about 1,500 million characters each month. To cope with the increasing international telex traffic, two telex exchanges are in operation serving more than 3,800 subscribers. International telephone services to most overseas countries are provided in conjunc- tion with the Hong Kong Telephone Company. The international telephone exchange is equipped for 675 circuits.