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COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
on postal matters. They encourage customers to use the postal service efficiently and seek to identify all practical means of increasing profitable postal business while maintaining existing traffic.
There were three special stamp issues in 1979. Three stamps were issued in January based on the theme, 'Hong Kong Industries', depicting the electronic, toy and textile industries. In June, four stamps were issued with Hong Kong's butterflies as the subject. Three stamps were issued in October to mark the opening of part of the first stage of the Mass Transit Railway.
Agency services carried out by the Post Office on behalf of other government departments included the payment of social welfare benefits amounting to $13 million a month.
Telecommunications Services
The Postmaster General is the Telecommunications Authority in Hong Kong and administers the Telecommunications Ordinance, which governs the establishment and operation of all telecommunications services. He also acts as adviser to the government on matters concerning the provision of public telecommunications services including internal and international telephone, telegraph, telex and data services, and the technical aspects of radio and television broadcasting.
To ensure that the radio frequency spectrum is utilised effectively, the Post Office licenses, under the Telecommunications Ordinance, all forms of radio communication within Hong Kong. It maintains surveillance of the radio frequency bands to detect illegal transmissions and interference emanating from sources within and around the territory. It also conducts inspections of ships' radio stations to ensure compliance with the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.
In addition, the Post Office provides advisory and planning services for the electronic, radio and telephone requirements of government departments. During 1979, projects undertaken included territory-wide radio networks for the Prisons Department and the Water Supplies Department, and large telephone installations for the Inland Revenue Department and several major government hospitals. At the end of the year, a command and control network was commissioned for the Fire Services Department. Installation and maintenance facilities for radio and electronic equipment, including a large number of electro-medical items for the Medical and Health Department, are provided by two work- shops in Kowloon and Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Telephone Company Limited, operating under franchise from the government, provides telephone and other telecommunications facilities in Hong Kong. The company is one of only 22 administrations in the world which serve more than one million telephones. By June, 1979, almost 1.5 million telephones were connected to the network, giving Hong Kong a density of 30 telephones for every 100 people, the highest in Southeast Asia. Service can normally be provided on demand anywhere in the territory. There is a flat rate rental which allows unlimited free calls within Hong Kong. The network is fully automatic, with 63 exchanges operating with equipment ranging from electro-mechanical to the most sophisticated common control electronic apparatus. A ship-to-shore telephone service is available which enables calls to be made into the public network within minutes of a ship mooring in Victoria Harbour. Facilities are also provided for data transmission over the telephone network.
In 1979, a new, fully automatic, direct dial radio paging service was introduced to join the tropical cyclone warning service already in use.