Thursday, February 8 8:30 AM SGT HONG KONG: Phones giant hits back at rivals' claims
Pacific Century CyberWorks HKT has hit back at rival operators who claimed the dominant carrier had tried to block competition although the market was liberalised in 1995.
The three operators - New World Telephone, New T&T, and Hutchison Global Crossing - formed after the opening up of the market took up less than five per cent of its share.
In a submission to the Legislative Council, PCCW-HKT said the problem "lies in the ability of other licensees to demand interconnection support without having any responsibility to fulfil their forecasts".
It cited New T&T and said it "has consistently engaged in over-forecasting and under-utilisation". It over-forecast 88 per cent, 138 per cent, and 570 per cent in 1996, 1997, and 1998 respectively, PCCW-HKT said.
"It is unfair and unreasonable for PCCW-HKT to be required to make considerable commitments when the requesting licensees are not obliged to match their expectations with commitments of their own," the submission said.
Last month, New World Telephone complained to legislators that the three operators could not compete with PCCW-HKT on a level playing field, citing problems in interconnection with and accessing PCCW-HKT's telephone exchanges and subscriber lines.
New World Telephone said it received 3,000 inquiries from PCCW-HKT's customers to switch services in the week after PCCW-HKT announced price increases in December, but it was unable to meet demand because of the interconnection problem.
New T&T also said its achievements in building access were below expectations. The main reasons included site constraints and administrative barriers imposed by PCCW-HKT and property developers. The remaining operator, Hutchison Global Crossing, is owned by tycoon Li Ka-shing, father of Richard Li Tzar-kai, who controls PCCW-HKT.
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