Contents of module
- Interconnection Part Five
- Interconnection index
- eLearning main Index
Mobile
Mobile cellphone and personal communications network operators originate and terminate calls to and from the PSTN as well as to each other, and as holders of a public non-exclusive telecommunications services (PNETS) licence they are obliged to pay an interconnection fee to the PSTN carrier. The payment arrangements are detailed in Part Four.
Under the terms of the carrier (FTNS) licences an interconnection charge can be levied on customers connected to the PSTN for the provision of services licensed as public non-exclusive telecommunications services. This definition includes facilities provided to the public for the transmission or reception of messages, including the carriage of information by an Internet service provider (ISP) that does not originate from the ISP itself.
PNETS charges exclude lines connected to the PSTN which are not used by the customer to operate a public telecommunications service. Only the PNETS charge of the dominant carrier, HKTC, is regulated.
Both mobile operators and ISPs therefore pay per minute PNETS charges. They also pay line charges for the interconnection. The mobile operators connected directly to each other on a sender-keeps-all basis until the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) in 1999, after which they all now interconnect indirectly through HKTC which operates the ported numbers database.
ISPs, of which there are over 100, have their own peering arrangements which reflect their status in the hierarchy. There are two Internet eXchanges in Hong Kong, which peer between top tier ISPs and second tier ISPs. (See Mueller, Hui and Cheng for an account.4)
As the following table shows, the per minute usage charge has fallen, and from 1996 onwards separate PNETS charges were introduced for mobile operators and VAS/ISPs. The reason for the separation is that the average holding time of Internet calls is significantly longer than mobile calls, so the fixed costs of call setup are spread over more minutes for Internet calls, but reliable data only became available for 1996 onwards.
| Date of PNETS charge | Line Charge per month | Usage Charge per minute |
| Pre-June 1996 | ||
| Mobile | HK$69 | HK 9¢ |
| VAS/ISP | HK$69 | HK 9¢ |
| 1 June 1996 | ||
| Mobile | HK$78 | HK 6.7¢ |
| VAS/ISP | HK$78 | HK 4.2¢ |
| 1 June 1998 | ||
| Mobile | HK$82 | HK 6.4¢ |
| VAS/ISP | HK$82 | HK 3.3¢ |
| 1 June 1999 | ||
| Mobile | HK$79 | HK 5.9¢ |
| VAS/ISP | HK$79 | HK 2.7¢ |
| 1 October 2000 | ||
| Mobile | HK$79 | HK 5.1¢ |
| VAS/ISP | HK$79 | HK 2.3¢ |