The Government is to take the lead in slashing networking charges for mobile phones inside its tunnels.
But officials denied the move was aimed at pressing franchised tunnel operators to follow suit.
Franchised tunnels - such as the Western Harbour, the Eastern Harbour and Tate's Cairn tunnels - have locked horns with six mobile-phone companies over a bill allowing the Telecommunications Authority to impose the charges in the event of disputes. The phone companies claimed the access fees were exorbitant, while the tunnels feared they would lose autonomy over fixing charges through commercial negotiation.
Lawmakers at a bills committee were told yesterday that the networking charges by five government tunnels - Lion Rock, Aberdeen, Shing Mun and the Tseung Kwan O and the airport tunnel - would be drastically reduced if the outcome of a review was endorsed.
The existing levels, ranging from $283,100 to $1.68 million a year, are based on the market rate of land leases, the length and diameter of cable installed and administration costs. Deputy Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting Eva Cheng Yu-wah said the new charges would cover the basic cost only. She denied it would set a precedent for franchised tunnels.
'The fact that we have adopted a cost-recovery model doesn't mean the non-government tunnels have to do so,' she said.