Post_Office_1972-1973 — Page 28

101. The number of television programmes transmitted via satel- lite for the year under review was 322 totalling 7,620 minutes, as compared with 159 programmes of 3,023 minutes in 1971-72. This represents a 152 per cent increase in transmission time.

102. Statistics also show that the number of hours of television transmission from Hong Kong for the last quarter (January-March) was equivalent to that for the entire year of 1971.

103. However, television reception during the year dropped from six programmes of 114 minutes to four programmes of 61 minutes.

104. The Message Switching Centre, which consists of four com- puter systems, handled 29,850,000 messages in the year ended 31st March, 1973, as compared with 25,618,000 in the previous year. This represents an increase of 16.5 per cent.

105. To handle the increasing volume of traffic on the round-the- clock maritime communication services via HF and VHF, a second 13 mhz. channel was added to the system in July 1972.

106. A total of 26,135 maritime radio telegrams were accepted for transmission and 79,146 radiotelegrams were received, as compared with 25,041 and 76,100 recorded in the previous year.

107. Outward maritime radiotelephone traffic dropped by 192 minutes to 1,650 minutes, whilst incoming calls rose by 4,233 minutes to 24,549 minutes.

108. Press broadcasts and reception totalled 25,033 hours in the year ended 31st March, 1973, representing an increase of 21 per cent.

109. On 30th December, 1972, Cable and Wireless opened a new public counter for the acceptance of telegrams and international tele- phone calls. It is located in New Mercury House, Wan Chai, and is the ninth Cable and Wireless public counter.

110. Cable and Wireless' new headquarters, the HK$60 million New Mercury House, was completed and officially opened by His Excellency the Governor, Sir Murray MACLEHOSE, on 17th January, 1973. It is built on a site of 35,000 sq. ft. The 15-storey building has a floor loading of 200 lbs/sq. ft. on all floors, with a gross area of 378,000 sq. ft. It was designed for expansion and work on the extension of six storeys has begun.

18