ENG-1985 — Page 18

HONG KONG IN TOUCH WITH THE WORLD

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purchase an instrument which needs only to be plugged into a socket previously installed at home.

In mid-September 1985, Hong Kong's Governor, Sir Edward Youde, spoke to Britain's Minister of State for Industry and Information Technology, Mr Geoffrey Pattie, inaugurating the new Whitehill satellite communications centre in Britain, which provides digital satellite links to Hong Kong. In his conversation, Sir Edward noted the important role that efficient and reliable telecommunications, as exemplified by the new satellite link, played in Hong Kong's ties with Europe and the rest of the world. Hong Kong had gained yet another channel enabling it to keep in touch with the world, adding to a system which already offered services from a basic public telegram to advanced high-speed data communication.

Hong Kong's telecommunications links, those wires and telephones, satellite stations, cables and microchips, telex machines and facsimile receivers which have been such an important factor in the territory's development as a leading business, financial and industrial centre, are a characteristic Hong Kong blend of public and private sectors. Essentially, the Postmaster General, as the Telecommunications Authority, is the regulatory body, while the day-to-day operation of telecommunications is left to the private

sector.

The Telecommunications Branch of the Post Office ensures that laws on telecom- munications are observed, manages radio frequencies, monitors the performance of franchised companies, and advises the government on telecommunications planning.

Hong Kong's external telecommunications are in the hands of Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong) Limited, in which the government has a 20 per cent stake. The other 80 per cent is owned by Cable and Wireless PLC in the United Kingdom. The company operates all Hong Kong's international telecommunications, installs and maintains radar and other navigational aids at the airport and provides engineering services and studio control for the government-owned Radio Television Hong Kong. Domestic telephone_services are provided by the Hong Kong Telephone Company, in which Cable and Wireless PLC has a controlling interest.

Cable and Wireless (HK) also provides international leased voice, data and telegraph circuits for private communication networks, ship-to-shore and air-to-ground communica- tions, international television transmission and reception, international and internal telex, the international telephone service and electronic mail.

Apart from the services of Cable and Wireless (HK), electronic mail is operated by a number of other companies, and it is one of the fastest growth areas in Hong Kong's tele- communications facilities. The sender uses a personal or business computer to file a message into an electronic 'pigeonhole' in the main computer. The recipient receives the message the next time he checks the 'pigeonhole'.

A variation of this, known as Fone-Mail, allows spoken messages to be sent, stored and received 24 hours a day, eliminating the problems of missed calls or engaged numbers. The storage facility is especially important to Hong Kong because of its ability to transcend international time zones: a message lodged from Hong Kong in, for example, the middle of the local business day, is waiting in London as soon as the London office opens for business, well after the Hong Kong sender has gone home.

The system has the advantage of being intrinsically multilingual, and Hong Kong users can have the standard instructions on use to be spoken in English or Cantonese. This is important in polyglot Hong Kong, which has two official languages Chinese - but where many of the world's major tongues can be heard.

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