Press Releases of Nov 2001
	SUNDAY Drops New Charging Method
	Inter-operator Short Message Service to be Available from 3 December, 2001
	PCCW Agrees to Improve Productivity for Local Loop Interconnection

"We have recently received a number of consumer complaints on SUNDAY's new charging method. OFTA has immediately conducted an investigation. After careful study of the implications of the new charging method, OFTA is of the view that the new method may cause unfairness and inconvenience to consumers. In line with worldwide telecommunications charging practice, customer tariff for mobile service should be based on actual conversation time excluding ringing time. Ringing is only part of the call set-up phase leading to successful establishment of a call. Neither a calling party nor a called party would be able to control the ringing duration of a call. Conversation time, on the other hand, would best reflect the usage of airtime by a customer," an OFTA spokesperson said.

"The results of OFTA's investigations were passed to SUNDAY which was also requested to withdraw the new charging method. We are pleased that SUNDAY has agreed to withdraw the new charging arrangement. However, since formal announcement of the revised tariff has already been made to SUNDAY's customers, OFTA has asked the operator to notify its customers of the decision promptly. OFTA will continue to monitor the development of this matter to ensure that consumer interest is protected," the spokesperson added.

Customers of SUNDAY who have enquiries on their bills should contact the customer hotline of SUNDAY on 2113 8000.

Office of the Telecommunications Authority
29 November 2001

"The ISMS will provide consumers with convenient and innovative data services. The new arrangement will allow a customer to send short messages to other customers even they are in different networks. Communication by short messages will be as convenient as voice," a spokesperson of the OFTA said.

In the past few months, OFTA has played an active role in coordinating the work of all six mobile network operators and their contractor and facilitating them to solve all the problems arisen. In order to ensure that the performance and service quality of the system would meet consumers' demand and requirements satisfactorily, operators have conducted a series of thorough tests on the system.

"OFTA will monitor the effectiveness of the system after the service is launched to ensure that customers will be provided with the best quality of service, " the spokesperson added.

Office of the Telecommunications Authority
23 November 2001

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) has received a number of complaints from Fixed Telecommunications Network Service (FTNS) operators that PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited (PCCW), as the dominant operator in the local telephone market, had not been providing an efficient service in the interconnection of local loops to other FTNS operators. Such interconnection is essential in facilitating competition in the local telephone market.

OFTA conducted a series of investigations on the current procedure adopted by PCCW in the interconnection of local loops to the new FTNS operators. Having considered the representations made by PCCW and the new FTNS operators and having inspected locations where interconnection took place, the Telecommunications Authority, Mr Anthony Wong, is of the view that it is vital that PCCW should improve its productivity on the interconnection of local loops. "This type of interconnection is necessary and must be provided efficiently by PCCW so that the Government policy on introduction of competition in the local telephone market could be implemented effectively," said Mr Wong.

"The new operators have made representations to me that the limit imposed by PCCW of 9 local loops per 2-hour window is too restrictive. OFTA has examined in detail the technical constraints in improving this productivity rate," Mr Wong added.

"After a series of discussions and exchanges with PCCW, the company has agreed to improve its productivity by deploying more resources and streamlining its process. PCCW agrees to increase the number of local loop interconnections from 9 per 2-hour window per operator per exchange to a maximum of 16, depending on the technical constraints in the telephone exchange concerned."

"I am glad that PCCW has voluntarily offered to improve its productivity. I have accepted PCCW's proposal and shall observe closely how this operates for six months. During these six months, I shall examine the demand from the new operators and whether this improved productivity will meet the demand," continued Mr Wong.

"I shall review the adequacy of the improved productivity at the end of the 6-month trial period, and I would not rule out requiring PCCW to make further improvement if the demand justifies it," said Mr Wong.

The trial period will commence from 1 January 2002.

Office of the Telecommunications Authority
9 November 2001