COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
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The internal telephone service is provided by the Hong Kong Telephone Company Limited. With an estimated 2.9 million telephones served by more than 2.2 million lines, the territory has a density of around 52 telephones for every 100 people.
The company also operates a public data network using a special transmission switching technique, known as packet switching, to provide more advanced data communication facilities.
The network helped with the introduction of ‘cashless shopping', enabling the electronic transfer of funds at selected retail outlets.
Hong Kong's international telephone service is provided jointly by the Hong Kong Telephone Company Limited and Cable and Wireless (HK) Limited. A world-wide operator-connected service is available and International Direct Dialling can be made to more than 190 overseas destinations as well as to over 6 000 ships at sea fitted with satellite communication equipment.
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International telecommunication services, which include public telegram, telex, tele- phone, television programme transmission/reception, leased circuits, ship-shore and air- ground communications, are provided by the Cable and Wireless (HK) Limited under an 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.
New submarine cables and radio links are put into service from time to time, further improving Hong Kong's facilities for communication with other territories.
To meet the high demand for telecommunications between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, the Hong Kong-Guangzhou optical fibre cable system was brought into service in October 1988. The digital system with an ultimate capacity of 46 080 telephone circuits has been initially equipped with 6 510 circuits to carry telephone, telex, telegraph and 64 kb/s data.
In addition to the basic services provided by the two franchised companies, a number of telecommunication services are operated by private companies under non-exclusive licences granted by the Telecommunications Authority. Services such as radio paging, mobile radiotelephone, data facsimile transmission, videotex, electronic mail, and community repeater are offered competitively by a number of organisations. Radio paging services are especially popular, and over 450 000 pagers are now in use.
During the year, the Hong Kong Government, pursuing its policy of allowing greater competition in telecommunications, approved in principle the setting up of a second local public telecommunications network in addition to the existing local public telephone network, owned and operated by the Hong Kong Telephone Company. Apart from carrying cable television, the second network will be permitted to carry non-franchised local telecommunications services, including local data and facsimile. Proposals for operating the network licence were invited internationally in September 1988 as part of an invitation for cable television proposals. The second network should be in operation in the early 1990s.
Postal Services
Hong Kong has a reliable and efficient postal service. Despite large increases in the volume of letters handled in recent years, the Post Office has continued to achieve its target of delivering most local mail within 24 hours of posting. Two mail deliveries are made on each weekday in the urban and industrial areas, and one delivery elsewhere.