ENG-1971 — Page 246

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COMMUNICATIONS

satellite and tropospheric scatter systems. A submarine cable with a capacity of 80 telephone channels extends westwards to Singapore and eastwards to Guam where it is extended by other cable systems to Japan and the United States. In November, the existing earth station operating to the Intelsat III satellite and providing circuits to Japan, America, Thailand, South Korea and Australia, was extended by the provision of an additional antenna. This facility, which was inaugurated by HRH, the Princess Anne, provides direct communication by way of the Indian Ocean satellite westwards to other countries, including the United Kingdom. HF radio systems continue to play a useful role and provide communication facilities to 12 countries.

A fifth computer and additional information storage facilities have been added to the electronic data-processing Message Switching Centre operated by Cable and Wireless. This system, which handles the traffic of the public telegram service, airline operations and other commercial organisations, is one of the largest installations of its type in the world. It currently handles 11,000 messages an hour and has a capacity of half a million per day.

A computerised telex exchange is being installed and is planned to become operational in January 1972. This exchange will provide many fully automatic facilities, including connection to telex sub- scribers in most parts of the world and internal connection to other subscribers in the Colony. A marine telex service providing ships at sea with facilities for world wide telex connection through Hong Kong is also operative.

The facilities available to Hong Kong by satellite include the international transmission and reception of television programmes. A specially equipped telecine studio has been established to provide facilities for news agencies to transmit news items in colour to other agencies throughout the world.

The recent introduction of classified telephone services to the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada now means that the public can make calls to these destinations at lower costs.

Telephone services in the Colony are provided by the Hong Kong Telephone Company Ltd, which is a public company operating under a franchise from the Government. The telephone system is fully automatic and consists of 42 exchanges serving some 680,000 telephones, resulting in a penetration factor of 17 telephones per 100 people. Telephones are provided on an annual rental basis and no separate charge is made for calls within the Colony. Connection