Could entering a lottery cost me my privacy?
I received an e-mail from ESDLife [the government's programme to promote internet usage] to register my personal details against my Octopus card. The advertisement e-mail from ESDLife promised some kind of lottery prize for a trip to Guam on registration. Attracted by the chance of a free trip, I registered my Octopus card. But after doing so, I became concerned about the safety of my personal information.
With the recent tough positioning of the central government, I need to know if Octopus will allow the security bureau to have access to information relating to the points of my entry and exit on the transport network. And under what circumstances and how much of this information will the security bureau or anyone else be allowed access to?
Is this move by Octopus to register its users a danger to civil liberty in Hong Kong?
Name and address supplied
Type II interconnection policy a huge success
We would like to respond to the various points made by Chloe Lee in her letter entitled 'Ofta on road to unbundling second failure', published on June 8.
Contrary to what Ms Lee has asserted, we would argue that our Type II interconnection policy has been a resounding success. As Ms Lee herself has recognised, currently more than 432,000 fixed-line customers subscribing to the services provided by PCCW's competitors, or more than 11 per cent of the total customer base of Hong Kong, are relying on the Type II interconnection lines.
Ms Lee has rightly observed that Hong Kong is among the most successful in the world in opening up the local fixed telephone market to competition. Type II interconnection has played a significant role in achieving this without undermining incentive for network rollout as PCCW's competitors provide services to more than 641,000 customers using self-constructed lines.
The Type II interconnection arrangement is intended to enable consumers to enjoy the benefit of competition at an earlier date. We have proposed in the current policy review to phase out the arrangement where sufficient choice to consumers has developed. In contrast, the Open Network Access (ONA) requirement is a licence obligation known to, and accepted by, the four 3G licensees when they decided to bid for the licences and will apply throughout the validity period of the licences.
The objective behind the ONA requirement is twofold. First, ONA promotes service competition, enabling service providers who do not have the resources to invest in a 3G network to participate in service provision business, which gives consumers additional choice. Second, ONA promotes competition in contents and applications by enabling independent content and application developers to deliver their products to consumers over the 3G networks. We believe mobile data market growth depends on a wide choice of content and applications to consumers.
Although Ms Lee has observed that a 'good application should sell itself', the application cannot be sold unless it can reach the consumers. Without ONA, we are not satisfied that the independent content and application developers can always have access to the networks without hindrance.
The ONA requirement is not the only initiative that the government has taken to promote the growth of the mobile data market. Other initiatives include, for example, funding the establishment of the Hong Kong Wireless Development Centre at Cyberport, bringing wireless solutions developers together with mobile operators and equipment vendors, and providing a neutral and centralised platform for the development, testing and marketing of innovative applications and services.
Y. K. HA
For Director-General of Telecommunications
