PCCW enabled US intelligence agencies to gain access to data

Hong Kong's main telecom provider PCCW enabled US intelligence agencies to gain access to huge volumes of electronic communications for a decade through Asia's largest intercontinental carrier, which it operates with an Australian counterpart.

The involvement of PCCW - owned by Richard Li Tzar-kai, son of Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing - emerged as Australian media reported yesterday that Australian telecom giant Telstra, together with PCCW, signed an agreement with US authorities requiring Telstra to route all communications that involved a US point of contact through a secure storage facility on US soil.

The local enterprise said the obligations did not affect Hong Kong customers.

According to the Australian reports, the data stored for the US government includes the content of e-mails, online messages and phone calls. The agreement also makes it incumbent on Reach - the jointly owned telecommunications carrier - not to allow data and communications of interest to be destroyed.

Reach and Telstra were required to "take all reasonable measures" to prevent use of their infrastructure for surveillance by a foreign government, the reports said.

The contract does not authorise the company or law enforcement agencies to undertake actual surveillance. But under the deed, Telstra must preserve and "have the ability to provide in the United States" the following:

• "Wire" or electronic communications involving any customers who make any form of communication with someone in the United States;
• "Transactional data" and "call associated data" relating to such communications;
• "Subscriber information"; and
• "Billing records".