TNAG-1779-FCO40-2539-Hong-Kong-international-telecommunications-1988 — Page 294

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concerning the provision of public telecommunication services. The work also includes the licensing and inspection of radio stations to ensure conformity with the terms of licences.

The Advisory and Planning Function includes advising Government on technical matters and policies related to telecommunications in Hong Kong and planning of telecommunication systems for Government, including coordination on the use of radio sites.

The Telecommunications Branch employs about 180 people in total. of these 180, one part time and two full time staff would be involved with the monitoring and control of the two local and international telecommunications carriers. So, while there is a formal framework of regulation as illustrated in Exhibit A.1, the resources allocated to monitoring and control are limited. Other countries which depend on private monopoly carriers for their basic telecommunications have a far more substantial and complex framework. For example, prior to 1981 the Post Office in the United Kingdom (rather like the Post Office in Hong Kong) acted as its own regulatory agency as well as a monopoly operating entity. During the liberalization process, and the privatisation of Cable and Wireless and then British Telecom, the regulatory powers were transferred to a newly created independent regulatory body, the Office of Telecommunications. The latter now employs some 150 staff.

The regulation of the local network

Local telecommunications are regulated through two primary legislative instruments, the Telephone Ordinance (Chapter 269) and the Telecommunication Ordinance (Chapter 106). The Telephone Ordinance was originally enacted in 1925 and has remained substantially unchanged since then although it was revised in 1951 and in 1985. It grants HKT the exclusive right to provide local telephonic services up to 1995. It authorizes HKT to provide and operate the PSTN for the telephonic service and to provide the service on demand anywhere in the Territory. [1] Section 22 states that the company shall "provide and maintain to the satisfaction of the Postmaster General a good, efficient and continuous service of public telephonic communication with modern appliances including all reasonable modern inventions."

The Ordinance does not define the telephonic service and an Arbitration decision in 1984 concluded that telephony by mobile radio was not covered by word 'telephonic' in granting the franchise.

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