FOLLOWING hard on the heels of the telecommunications revolution planned for Hong Kong, the Macau Government is planning its own fully interactive cable television network.
Presumably, the cable system would be accompanied by a second domestic telephone network to compete with the present exclusive CTM system, 51 per cent controlled by Cable & Wireless plc and whose monopoly expires in 1995.
The intention was to put the new system out to tender within months, said Carlos Alberto Lopes, the chairman of CTT, the Macanese posts and telecommunications department.
''While we are still studying the possibilities of an international tender, we expect something to be announced within six months,'' he said.
Another Macau official put the tendering timetable at ''between three and six months''.
According to Mr Lopes, the broad intention is to follow the Hong Kong template and licence a carrier to first build a microwave delivered pay-TV network and then to ''over-build'' a full optical fibre and coaxial cable TV network within two or three years.
Taking into account an average cost of US$35 per ''pass'' for an optical fibre system, it would cost about US$4.73 million to connect Macau's 135,000 households and 4.2 million residents.
