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The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) issued the following statement today (June 1) in response to the judgement handed down by the court in connection with the judicial review applied by PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited (PCCW) on the Telecommunications Authority's (TA) direction dated November 7, 2006. The purpose of the Direction was to direct PCCW and Wharf T&T Limited (WT&T) to effect interconnection so as to pass the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) traffic of a Service-Based Operator (SBO) licensee connected to WT&T's network.
"We welcome the judgement handed down by the court today, which affirms the Telecommunications Authority's power to issue direction under section 36B of the Telecommunications Ordinance (TO) to secure interconnection. With the legal effect of the direction clearly affirmed by the court, the obligations of licensees to observe and comply with the relevant licence conditions on interconnection and 'any-to-any' connectivity are further entrenched. OFTA firmly believes that timely interconnection is crucial to new entrants to the market and the 'any-to-any' connectivity requirement ensures customers on one network will be able to call the customers of another network without impediment."
Background:
In January 2006, OFTA introduced a SBO Licence for the provision of VoIP service. SBO licensees are required to make commercial arrangements with fixed network operators for hosting connection, so that the traffic of the VoIP services can be routed through the hosting network to and from other fixed network operators.
In June 2006, OFTA received a complaint from WT&T, a hosting fixed network operator, against PCCW that it had not opened the number block "5804" allocated by OFTA to Zone Limited (Zone), an SBO licensee, for the operation of VoIP services. Following an investigation, OFTA issued a direction on November 7, 2006 under section 36B of the TO. The Direction directs PCCW and WT&T, to effect interconnection so as to pass Zone's VoIP traffic via the hosting network of WT&T to and from PCCW's network at an interim charge. The two parties are allowed to continue their commercial negotiations on the level of interconnection charge, failing which either party may request the TA to make a determination on the interconnection terms.
Ends/Friday, June 1, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:40
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