HKNet seeks competition legislation before battle begins

Internet service provider HKNet has called for tougher anti-competition regulations in anticipation of a drop in prices for high-speed service access because of increased competition.

Barely a week after the Government announced the names of the five wireless fixed-network telecommunications service (FNTS) licensees which will challenge Cable & Wireless HKT's virtual monopoly, HKNet deputy managing director Charles Mok said regulations should be tightened to prevent predatory pricing practices.

His comments came after HKT lowered the price of one of its service offerings, under which the cost of the first 20 hours of high-speed Internet usage was cut from $298 to $198 on January 1.

'The Government should understand that it can't only focus on driving down prices. If prices are pushed to extremely low levels it could endanger the long-term survival of other service providers, and the end users will ultimately suffer,' Mr Mok said.

He argued that as the fixed-line business requires hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure investment, focusing too much on lowering prices could result in slower infrastructure investment by operators.

'If the Government is not going to consider the return on investment factor, as if saying 'we just want you to provide cheap services', then they should let us know, so we can review how we'll build our network infrastructure according to the rules of the game,' he said.