HONG Kong has one of the highest per capita usage rates of paging devices in the world. In an environment as competitive and lucrative as the paging scene in Hong Kong, it is little wonder the leading paging companies are vying with each other to bring out news services. Recently, Star Paging, one of the territory's largest paging corporates, introduced two new services. RaceKey transmits horse-racing information supplied by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club. Its data display resembles the totaliser board at the racecourse and permits the user to retrieve information as needed, rather than in sequential order of data. It also provides more complex information such as trend analyses of win and quinella odds, plus more background information such as the top 10 jockeys in Hong Kong and the tables of trainers and their results. A choice of English or Chinese display is available. Star's Pagephone Secretarial Service gives the user access to a secretary who will answer calls to the paging number. The pager secretary can be instructed either to take messages for the user, transmit the name of the caller or the message on the pager or, alternatively, forward the call directly to the user's mobile phone, office or home. In a similar vein, New World Paging has introduced Telesec Forwarding. Consisting of two similar services, the automatic Telesec forwarding allows calls to the user to be automatically forwarded to the number specified by the user from time to time. Manual Telesec allows the user to instruct the operator to forward or withhold calls from designated people - in effect, instituting a call screening service. New World Paging also has begun offering subscribers InfoPage, which involves the periodic transmission of various information. It transmits the expected daily temperature, typhoon and rainstorm warnings (whenever signal is hoisted or lowered), the latest Hang Sang index figures in an updated form four times a day, and the Mark Six results. Similar information services are now available through Telecom Paging. Hutchison Paging's latest services are heavily linked to its Tien Dey Seen CT-2 system and give users of that system greater flexibility to receive messages. With the Meet-Me service, callers can leave a voice-mail (or written) message for users. This facility allows up to 15 seconds for the message and the user may access up to six messages, which will be retained on the system for up to eight hours. Alternatively, callers can stay on the line until the user receives a prompt and speaks directly to them via a portable handset. With the addition of the Jetpage function, the caller can bypass the need to speak to an operator and access the system by dialling the account. and following recorded message instructions.
