bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

SIX of the Internet access providers whose operations were shut down by the police have now been granted telecommunications licences - and two are already back in service.

  Hong Kong Internet and Gateway Services (HKIGS) and Asia On-line re-established their Internet connections on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively.

  The two firms, plus providers Cybernet, Internet Connections and Linkage On-line were issued Public Non-exclusive Telecommunications Service (PNETS) licences last week, said Eric Lam, senior controller at the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA).

  Internet On-line Hong Kong was due to get its licence yesterday afternoon, and InfoLink sometime this week.

  So far, the only service provider not to submit an application for a licence is HongKongLink.

  The firm is now set up as a sole proprietorship and needs to be registered as a limited company before it can apply for a licence.

  Mr Lam said OFTA had done its best to issue licences as soon as possible so firms could resume business and it would be releasing a statement this week on how PNETS licences applied to on-line services.

  'We are now being pressed very hard to issue the statement, so it will be out within days,' he said.

  He added it would also cover bulletin board services (BBSes) in Hong Kong.

  Whether on-line services have to pay Hongkong Telecom a nine-cents-per-minute surcharge on the access they provide would depend on if they held a PNETS licence, Mr Lam said.

  'The nine-cents-per-minute [surcharge] will apply only to people who need the licence.

  'That's the crucial point. Others needn't worry.'   The PNETS licence covers a wide range of services and includes an International Value-added Network Services (IVANS) licence.

  The latter allows holders to lease lines overseas and offer commercial services to the public.

  'Internet services are covered by IVANS,' Mr Lam said.

  'They now have the flexibility, so if they want to have their own [overseas] leased line, they can go ahead. We have not placed any restrictions on them.'   Of the service providers which have been granted licences, HKIGS and Linkage On-line have leased lines to the Internet backbone in the United States, with Asia On-line expected to get a connection soon.

  Linkage On-line, which was testing its connection at the time of the police raids against Internet providers, will start offering its services commercially on March 20, director Chin Man said.

  The company's charges will go as low as $12 an hour for full Internet access.

  Asia On-line, which went back on-line on Saturday morning, was working on setting up a 128-K (kilobits-per-second) leased line to the US before the end of the month, chairman Philip Wong said.

  The company is now understood to be using a feed from HKIGS to get onto the Net.

  Most of the other providers are thought to be doing the same, but many have said they will switch their feed to HongKongLink as soon as the firm gets its licence.

  HongKongLink managing director Aaron Cheung said his company already had a 128-K leased line to US service provider Alternet up and running, but is now only testing it.

  'That line will not be used until HongKongLink gets the licence,' Mr Cheung said.

  He added the re-registration of his firm as a limited liability company had to be completed before he could submit his licence application.

  He said there were also other reasons for the delay.

  'HongKongLink is considering five partnership arrangements,' he said. 'If any one goes through, chances are there will be a lot of changes in terms of the sub-provider market.'   Some of HongKongLink's potential partners did not want the firm to resell leased line bandwidth to other Internet access providers, Mr Cheung said.

  'HongKongLink will make sure sub-providers will be taken care of. I am here as a neutral party to serve the local Internet community.'   He said he would make a decision on future partners by the end of the week.

  Of the other service providers, Internet On-line Hong Kong expects to go on-line within the next two days, director Garland Lew said.

  A Cybernet spokesman said his company would also go on-line this week.

  Internet Connections, although in possession of a PNETS licence, would not be back in service until March 20 because of 'technical difficulties', a spokesman said.

  Otto Fung, general manager of InfoLink, said his company would be ready to go on-line as soon as it received its licence from OFTA.

  All the providers feeding from companies with overseas leased lines have said they will change their connection charges if asked by OFTA to pay the Hongkong Telecom surcharge.

  But Chin Man from Linkage On-line said his firm had already factored the surcharge into its charges and would not alter them.

  Hann Lung, a director at HKIGS, said his company had yet to reach a final decision on charges, but said they would probably remain unchanged.

  Between them, these service companies provide an estimated 5,000 subscribers in Hong Kong with a link to the Internet.

     Their charges vary from $4 to $20 an hour.

  Hong Kong Supernet, the only provider unaffected by the police action because it was operating with a licence at the time, charges between $10 and $25 an hour.



Net firms licensed to connect