248
COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
exclusive licence granted under the Telecommunication Ordinance. The company also operates the local telex and telegram service. International facilities are provided through land and submarine cables, radio systems and satellite links from the Stanley earth station which operates via satellites over the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
To further improve Hong Kong's telecomunication facilities for communication with other territories, new submarine cables and radio links are planned and put into service from time to time. A new submarine cable between Hong Kong and Taiwan was brought into service in October 1985 to replace the old tropospheric scatter radio system.
Other than the basic services provided by the two franchised companies, a number of telecommunication services are operated by private companies under appropriate non- exclusive licences granted by the Telecommunications Authority. Services such as radio paging, mobile radiotelephone, data facsimile transmission, videotex, electronic mail, community repeater and one-way data message are offered competitively by a number of organisations. Radio paging services are especially popular, and over 250 000 pagers are now in service.
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