ENG-2008 — Page 427

Communications, the Media and Information Technology | 351

External Telecommunications Facilities and Services

The external telecommunications facilities market was fully liberalised in 2000. At year-end, there were 25 licensees providing cable-based external telecommunications facilities and another five providing non-cable based external telecommunications facilities. Hong Kong, being a major telecommunications and internet hub, is connected to seven regional/trans-Pacific submarine cable systems and to the land cable networks of all three telecommunications operators of the Mainland. The total equipped capacity of external telecommunications facilities was over 3 400 Gbps in December 2008. Three new submarine cable systems connecting to Hong Kong are being planned or under construction. Cost reduction in the external telecommunications facilities and services markets due to competition and technological advancement has led to significant drops in the price of International Direct Dialling (IDD) calls as well as international private lease circuits.

Satellite Communications

Two Hong Kong companies, APT Satellite Company Limited and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat), hold licences to operate and provide satellite communication services. At year-end, the two satellite companies were operating eight satellites.

Creation of the Unified Carrier Licence

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With a dynamic market and technological developments, the distinction between fixed and mobile networks and services is becoming increasingly blurred. The Government has therefore introduced a new Unified Carrier Licence as a single licensing vehicle for all types of carrier services fixed, mobile or fixed-mobile converged services under harmonised licensing conditions and license fees. With effect from August 1, 2008, a Unified Carrier Licence is granted to all new and/or renewal carrier licence applications. Existing carrier licensees can convert their licences to the new Unified Carrier Licence before expiry on a voluntary basis. At year-end, three Unified Carrier Licences had been issued to replace existing Mobile Carrier Licences.

Combating Unsolicited Electronic Messages

To tackle the problem of unsolicited electronic messages (UEM), the UEM Ordinance was implemented in December 2007 to regulate the sending of commercial electronic messages (CEMs), including fax, pre-recorded voice calls, short messages and emails. Under the UEM Ordinance, senders of CEMs are required to comply with specific sending rules, including provision of accurate sender information and an unsubscribe facility in the message. Moreover, under the UEM Ordinance, three do-not-call registers (for fax, short message and pre-recorded telephone message respectively) have been established. Senders are prohibited from sending CEMs to the numbers registered therein, unless consent from the registered user of the number has been obtained. By December 31, 2008, there were more than 1.46 million registrations in the three do-not-call registers with some 374 000 numbers for fax, 371 000 for short message and 722 000 for pre-recorded message.