ENG-2015 — Page 340

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The Media, Communications and Information Technology

the Mainland via 19 overland cables. The total equipped capacity of the external telecommunications facilities in December 2015 exceeded 30,740Gbps.

Satellite Communications

The two Hong Kong companies licensed to operate and provide satellite communications. services were operating 10 satellites at the end of 2015. Some of these satellites have been in service for more than 15 years and will soon reach the end of their designed operation lives. The two companies have entered a new investment cycle of launching new satellites for replacement and provision of new business.

Combating Unsolicited Electronic Messages

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance regulates the sending of commercial electronic messages (CEMs), including fax, pre-recorded phone messages, short messages and emails. Under this ordinance, senders of CEMs are required to comply with specific sending rules. There are three 'do-not-call' registers (DNCs) for fax, short messages and pre-recorded phone messages respectively. Senders are prohibited from sending CEMS to DNC-registered numbers without the consent of the registered users. By 31 December 2015, more than 2.8 million numbers were registered in the three DNCs.

Since the introduction of this ordinance in 2007, the CA has received more than 29,000 reports of suspected contraventions, issued 686 warning letters and 26 enforcement notices to senders, and instigated one prosecution for non-compliance with an enforcement notice. The number of reports fell from about 6,100 in 2009 to around 2,100 in 2015, a testimony to the effectiveness of the regulatory regime. The government continues to work with other jurisdictions to combat spam and unsolicited emails. The OFCA is a member of the London Action Plan, which combats spam through international co-operation and sharing of experience and intelligence.

Protection of Consumers

The OFCA works closely with the industry to safeguard consumer interests in using telecommunications services and to resolve any systemic problems that are manifested in consumer complaints. Since 2010, the OFCA and the industry have worked together to adopt a number of initiatives to tackle issues concerning chargeable mobile content services, mobile bill shock, contractual disputes, implementation of fair usage policy by operators, billing information and payment collection, and performance of mobile broadband services.

To help resolve billing disputes in deadlock between consumers and their telecommunications service providers by means of mediation, the telecommunications industry set up a voluntary Customer Complaint Settlement Scheme for a two-year trial from November 2012 with funding and administrative support from the OFCA. All major telecommunications service providers took part in the scheme. During the trial, the settlement rate for the 357 cases handled was almost 100 per cent and participants reflected a high level of satisfaction. In view of this, the OFCA supported long-term implementation of the scheme from 1 May 2015.

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