BRIEF ON CABLE AND WIRELESS PLC ACTIVITY IN HONG KONG AND CHINA
Sir Eric Sharp, Chairman and Chief Executive of Cable and Wireless plc, is currently President of the Sino-British Trade Council and frequently leads British trade delegations to China.
Hong Kong
The telecommunications facilities within Hong Kong and internationally to and from Hong Kong are provided by Cable and Wireless companies under licence/franchise from the Hong Kong Government. The companies and their predecessors have both operated in Hong Kong for more than a century. The provision of customer equipment is "deregulated" (may be supplied by anyone in a competitive market environment), and anything deemed compatible with the telecommunications network and electrically safe may be connected. Likewise, many telecommunications services in Hong Kong are provided by competing service providers who utilise the national and international network facilities to carry their service to their
customers.
On 1st February this year a new holding company, Hong Kong Telecommunications Limited (Hong Kong Telecom), was listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. This was formed by combining the assets of the two operating companies, Hong Kong Telephone Co. Ltd. and Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong) Ltd. Hong Kong Telephone had become a subsidiary of Cable and Wireless plc in 1984, at which time Cable and Wireless plc owned almost 80% of the stock, individual private shareholders the remainder. Prior to the February listing, Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong) had been owned 80% by Cable and Wireless plc and 20% by the Hong Kong Government. The latter currently holds 11% of Hong Kong Telecom.
The national and international telecommunications network compares favourably with the best in the world in terms of quality of service and use of modern technology. Speed of provision of telephone service and of fault repair is fast, with telephone services and the provision of transmission capacity being available on demand throughout the territory. The cost of telephone service to the user is modest at HK$43/£3 per month for residential service and HK$66/£4.50p for business. No charge is made for calls within the territory. Almost every household has telephone service and the number of calls made is high by world standards. There is almost one telephone for every two people in Hong Kong.
The business community is also well served by the telecommunication infrastructure, as evidenced by the presence of a number of multinational companies who have chosen Hong Kong as a regional base, communications being an important element in their choice of location. Recent market studies carried out independently of Hong Kong Telecom have indicated that, overall, business users are "satisfied" to "very satisfied" by the level of service provided by the telecommunications companies.
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