I AM writing in response to the letter of your reader Olive Chawla, published in these columns on December 27.
While she finds the phonecards issued by Hongkong Telecom useful, she is dissatisfied that once she has used up $98 on a $100 card her overseas call is automatically cut off. Since she does not normally use pay phones to make local calls, she suggests that the $2 should be refundable.
Hello phonecards and stored value phonecards issued by Hong Kong Telecom are both very popular with tourists and local customers. For Hello phonecards, each time a call is placed, a voice instruction will advise the customer the residual value of the card. For an overseas call, the system will announce the maximum call duration allowed by the mentioned residual value before call connection. During the conversation, the customer will hear a beep tone when there is only 30 seconds of call duration left.
The customer may continue the conversation after the beep until the call duration is less than 30 seconds, an IDD (international direct dial) call will not be allowed. This is to ensure that the caller has sufficient time for a complete IDD call. The remaining residual value can be used for overseas calls when the maximum call duration allowed by the specified residual value exceeds 30 seconds, or for placing local calls.
For stored value phonecards, when the credit balance goes down to a value equivalent to 20 seconds of talking time, the customer will also hear a signal and see a message displayed on the screen.
If the customer wants to extend the call, he or she can press a button and insert a new card. If the card balance is lower than the value equivalent to 20 seconds of talking time, and the user wishes to use the card for IDD calls, he or she may make calls at duet phones which accept both coins and stored value cards by inserting coins in addition to using the low balance card so that the total credit equals or exceeds the 20-second value.