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COMMUNICATIONS
be operational in 1971. Domestic telex service came into effect in 1970 and the first Far East ship-shore telex service enabling ships at sea to send and receive telex calls from Hong Kong and all parts of the world also came into operation in 1970.
Telephone services in the Colony are provided by the Hong Kong Telephone Company, Limited, a public company operating under a Government franchise. In collaboration with Cable and Wireless, Limited, it also provides telephone communication to most over- seas countries and to ships at sea.
The telephone system is fully automatic and consists of more than 580,000 working telephones operating through 42 exchanges. Exchange line rentals are on a flat rate basis of HK$350 a year for business lines and HK$235 a year for residential lines. There is no charge made for local calls and the telephone service in Hong Kong is one of the cheapest in the world.
Some 72,000 new lines were installed during 1970 compared with 71,446 in 1969, and 2 additional telephone exchanges were com- missioned in 1970 together with extensions to existing exchanges and the necessary cable schemes associated with this expansion of the system.
The overall demand has continued at a high rate and an annual growth rate of about 20 per cent has been maintained for some
years.
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