ACCEPTED wisdom is that deregulated and open markets are the ones which best serve the consumer - competition brings improved levels of service and innovation and, most importantly, drives down prices.
So, on the face of it, the Government's decision to keep the local fixed-line telephone market closed for another three years is not in the best interests of customers.
It means that the four companies licensed to offer local services will continue to have the local telephone market to themselves at the expense of consumers. However, the situation is somewhat more complex.
The cherished tradition of free phone calls in Hong Kong and the lack of a domestic long-distance market means that providing voice telephone services to the local phone market is low value, particularly the residential sector.
This means the new entrants to the market in 1995 - Hutchison Telecom, New World Telephone and New T&T - mainly targeted business customers, selling enhanced services and extra capacity for data-driven applications like the Internet.
Nearly four years after that first deregulation of the market, the situation remains where, realistically speaking, residential customers still only have one choice of telephone company: Hongkong Telecom.
Would opening the market have helped this situation? Possibly not.