PCCW slammed for slowing telecoms competition
Hong Kong incumbent carrier, Pacific Century CyberWorks, has been slammed by its competitors and the city's legislature for slowing down the introduction of competition in the fixed line sector.
PCCW is accused of restricting access to its co-location exchanges, extending lead times in opening access to its network and inflating wholesale prices.
The issue came to a head on Monday during a panel meeting of lawmakers, where members criticized PCCW for opening up only 5% of its network to competitors, six years after they were introduced into the market place.
Competitive fixed line operator, New World Telephone, outlined a list of barriers which it claims hampered access, including six- to eight-month lead times for access to PCCW's exchanges and limiting the number of exchanges per year that is opened for access.
It would take 20 years to gain access to the whole of PCCW network under the current system, NWT said in a statement.
NWT has submitted a proposal to the legislature, calling for new conditions, such as shortening the lead-time for access to three months, doubling the number of co-location exchanges open each year and reducing the set-up for the sites by 50%. NWT also wants assurances that at least 100 PCCW fixed lines can be converted over to competitive networks each day.
Despite three competing fixed line operators, PCCW continues to hold over 98% of the market. The government wants PCCW to open up at least 50% of its network to competitors by 2002, a target that many think the incumbent telco could realistically achieved. Failure to do so carries a maximum fine of HK$1 million. PCCW made some HK$12 billion ($1.54 billion) from the fixed line sector last year.
According to the Hong Kong iMail newspaper, legislators are now hoping to force through a re-drafting of the fixed-line code of practice aimed at speeding up competition in the local loop.
The legislators' move comes less than a month after PCCW raised local phone rates by the maximum HK$20 to HK$110 per month.
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