British and Chinese officials are today to strike a deal which, after a year of deadlock, will revolutionise Hong Kong's mobile telephone network.
The Sino-British Joint Liaison Group (JLG) said yesterday their experts were on the verge of an initial agreement on the issuing of six Personal Communication Services licences and were likely to announce the deal today.
The Government plans to grant a 10-year franchise to six operators for the services, which represent the latest generation in mobile phones. They promise to be cheaper, offer better signal quality, and use less power - meaning lighter batteries and phones.
Local subscribers will also be able to use the services outside Hong Kong, bringing them into line with services already available in Britain and in other Asian countries.
However, a key point of the deal is that Hong Kong's post-handover government will conduct an interim review of the franchises to ensure there is no unhealthy competition.
It is understood the six operators are People's Telephone, a consortium led by China Resources; Mandarin Communications, led by Lai Sun Development and USI Holdings; Hutchison Telephone; Pacific Link, led by First Pacific; P-Plus, led by the Taiwan-based Pacific Electric Wire Cable, and Star Paging.
They are each expected to spend at least $1.2 billion on their networks. The formal agreement will be signed by JLG leaders Hugh Davies and Zhao Jihua after the summer.
