In his article headlined, 'Phone price policy calls for rethink' (South China Morning Post, February 26), Chan Wai-kwan argues that local phone calls should be metered and charged according to usage, but he overlooks some important points. He claims that a telephone line used 24 hours a day for computer connection, would receive a subsidy of $1,430 from other users. In fact, all online computer use already attracts a special surcharge (PNETS, or Public Non-Exclusive Telecom Services) of $2.52 per hour, which amounts to $1,875 a month, so a 24-hour user would in fact subsidise other users. In practice, such users use international direct dial (IDD) services heavily and pay several thousands of dollars a month which further subsidise local calls. Mr Chan states that local calls have been cross-subsidised by IDD calls, but that is only because the rates have been capped by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA). It is surely reasonable that the current low domestic rate of $69 should be raised to an economic level. Most importantly, Mr Chan ignores the fact that the real cost of telecoms infrastructure, especially international lines, is plummeting and will become very low in future, due to huge advances in technology, especially of fibre-optic lines. On the other hand, the cost of content (online commerce, education, entertainment and other services on the Information Super-Highway, charged on a time basis at source) will become a large part of household expenditure, capable of absorbing the cost of the lines used hundreds of times over. To introduce call metering and charging now would necessitate installation of expensive additional equipment, which would then act as a drag anchor on those very uses of the network which all forward-thinking Hong Kongers, including the Chief Executive, want to encourage. It would also increase money-wasting paperwork and bureaucracy. Hong Kong desperately needs ideas to increase its efficiency now. Metering calls would reduce its efficiency, so let's forget the idea for good. ROSS MILBURN Chai Wan
