Ofta may ease way for Net telephony
The telecommunications regulator is considering creating a special licence for internet telephony, opening the highly competitive market for voice services to new players such as internet service providers.
At present, fixed-line carriers such as City Telecom offer internet telephony under the terms of their existing licences.
However, in a consultation paper released yesterday, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) envisions creating a less restrictive licence - a move that will significantly lower the barriers to market entry.
'Full application of [fixed-line] conditions might impede the exploitation of new technologies,' the regulator said.
Ofta noted that internet telephony would allow for the entry of pure 'service-based' operators which did not maintain their own broadband networks.
A key issue will be the provision of Hong Kong telephone numbers, which the agency allocates to fixed-line and mobile operators.
City Telecom draws on its existing allotment to assign numbers to subscribers of its internet telephone service, launched in August through its Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) unit. This allows broadband telephone customers to dial traditional subscribers, and vice versa.
But other firms do not have access to the numbers. Ofta has asked for industry feedback on how numbering resources should be assigned to internet telephone operators.
Should service-based operators gains access to numbers, a flood of new companies could come to market using cheap, off-the-shelf equipment.
'The numbering resources are very significant. This lowers the barriers to entry very significantly,' CLSA analyst Francis Cheung said. 'My guess is there will be some entrepreneurs out there willing to give it a try.'
The new entrants would also put pressure on dominant carrier PCCW and other fixed-line players to offer internet telephone services, Mr Cheung said.
Other issues the consultation paper seeks to address are number portability, access to emergency services, local access charges and universal service contribution fees.
Stuart Chiron, a director of regulator affairs at PCCW, said: 'It looks like the right questions are being raised. My question is, how much of this may be pre-judged based on Ofta's earlier actions with regard to HKBN?'
Customers of HKBN's internet telephony product can use PCCW's Netvigator service.
PCCW claims HKBN is getting a 'free ride'. Ofta is not convinced, saying customers had already paid for their broadband connection and could use it for any application they wished.
Mr Chiron said: 'We don't think it's appropriate to have our network used without compensation.'
