Nearly 1.5 million households could be viewing interactive television within three years, Hongkong Telecom said yesterday. The company, given the green light to introduce the scheme yesterday, now plans to invest $10 billion over the next 10 years to bring it into Hong Kong homes. By the end of next year, 40 per cent of Hong Kong's 1.6 million households will have fibre-optic access to the service and 90 per cent by 2000, the company said. Video on Demand and Music on Demand - supplying movies, music videos and karaoke tracks - will be available at the end of the year. More than 200 households are already sampling VOD services as part of a pilot scheme which will continue until services are formally launched in Sha Tin and eastern Hong Kong Island. Managing director of Telecom's interactive multimedia division, William Lo Wing-yan, said five services would be introduced in the next nine months with more to follow. He said the service was targeted to be taken by more than 88,000 of Hong Kong's 1.6 million households in its first year. The target for 2000 was 300,000 plus. The third service, home shopping, will be launched early next year, offering more than 6,000 products from Wellcome supermarkets and other retailers. In March, home banking will commence while, in the longer term, other services such as Internet connections and interactive education will also be offered. Tentative charging arrangements will see subscribers pay a $300 to $400 installation charge plus a monthly rental fee of about $200 for their decoder box. 'Also if you want to watch a movie, it will be about $20 to $30 a time and about $3 to $4 for a karaoke song,' he said. But William Earl, project director of Wharf Interactive Network Limited which is developing its own programme opportunities after its parent company failed to stop Telecom developing a VOD service, attacked the government decision. 'Telecom is already dominant. The consumer and the telecommunications industry in Hong Kong and abroad are asking if the regulatory issues are understood,' he said.
