XN000022-1996-07-05 — Page 39

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Electric company's proposal still being studied

In response to enquiries on a newspaper report today (Friday), a spokesman for the Economic Services Branch said that the Government had not taken any decision on the proposal by the Hongkong Electric Company Limited to build additional generating capacity.

"The Company's proposal is still being studied by the Government," he said.

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Findings on calling number display service published

The Telecommunications Authority today (Friday) published a statement on the public consultation on calling number display (CND) and has made proposals on the implementation of the service in Hong Kong.

The service, which enables the receiver of a call to know the number of line from which the call is being made before he or she actually answers it, is now available in a number of overseas countries.

"We believe that it should also be available to Hong Kong telephone users, such that receivers of calls may be in a better position to decide whether to accept an incoming telephone call or not," the spokesman said.

CND is known to have a deterrent effect on nuisance calls and can be a key to emergency rescue if the caller is unable to identify his exact location. The previous public consultation has indicated wide public support for the service to be introduced in Hong Kong-

"We have, nonetheless, not overlooked legitimate concerns of callers about their telephone number being displayed automatically to receivers of the calls," said the spokesman.

An inherent part of the proposal will be a requirement for the network operators to provide free CND blocking services to all telephone users such that a caller may choose to transmit his number or not.