Long distance telephones, international video conferences and video phones shorten the distances among people in different parts of the world, and they help to establish international communication networks in small territories.
Long distance telephone has been developing rapidly after the introduction of International Direct Dial in 1976. Compared with the old long distance services, which were handled by an operator, IDD significantly reduced cost and provides quicker and more convenient communication.
According to statistics from Hongkong Telecom, the number of connections to IDD service increased 9.2 percent from 1993 to 1994. Last year there were 2 million customers using the service, which can connect Hong Kong to more than 200 countries now.
The service causes about $15 billion every year. In addition, it is expected to be a big market for further development.
At present, there are eight long distance telephone service companies in Hong Kong including AIC. Yet, only four or five are active. CTI and AIC are relatively well-known among them. An increasing demand for long distance service has resulted in increased competition among suppliers in the market.
CTI was founded in 1990 in Canada. It introduced international calling cards services to Hong Kong in September 1992.
CTI connects Hong Kong with 125 countries. Up to November 1994, the company already secured a stronghold in the market with 90,000 residential and corporate subscribers.
The selling point of the company is money-saving. Its promotion and advertisement always emphasize on "Save up to 25 percent".
This strategy is effective to Mr. Tsang Chi Kwong, 46, a senior police driving examiner.
Mr. Tsang has been using long distance telephone since his son left for the United Kingdom to study six years ago. He shifted his subscription from Hongkong Telecom to CTI recently.
"CTI's long distance calling service is not as convenient as IDD, but the cheap costs override the disadvantages," Mr. Tsang said. To make a call by CTI, one must be connected by an operator, which takes time.
He still uses IDD fax services because it is ineffective to wait for a service that takes only a few seconds.
AIC Telecom Ltd. is another long distance telephone company, established in Vancouver in 1992. It entered the Hong Kong market in the early 1994.
According to Managing Director Harry Rumjahn, the company was established by a group of Hong Kong immigrants to Canada.
"AIC already had a number of basic users in Hong Kong when it launched its service. They are relatives and friends of users in Canada. Making use of this stepping stone, AIC developed its business more easily.
The company mainly provides long distance telephone service. An innovative technology that some providers are considering is videophones, but Mr. Rumjahn said it will not launch video phone service in the near future.
"The market for videophones is good looking, but it is not good in terms of its development. The technology now cannot respond to the real wants of its users," said Mr. Rumjahn.
Still, he is optimistic about the prospects for the long-distance communication market. "I think the Hong Kong market will become more like the one in Canada. There are 120 registered companies, though only 50 really play active role in the market.
"CTI and our company have been in the market for three years and one year respectively, and we just take up about 3 percent of the whole market. That means there is a great potential market for us to develop," he added.
International video conferences make it possible for business to be done in face-to-face contact around the world.
The spokesperson of Hongkong Telecom, Miss Anita Choi, stated that this technology was only adopted by some large international companies when it launched in 1989, but it is more common now as it frees businessmen from the expenses and troubles of travelling.
Another relatively new international communication product, the videophone, was first launched locally by Hongkong Telecom's CSL in the late 1992. It was the first full-colour, moving-image videophone in the Asian region, and users simply plug the equipment into a regular socket on a normal telephone line to make the calls.
According to Miss Choi, sales have been encouraging, and there has been considerable interest from the public since the product was launched in December 1992.
However, some people are not satisfied with its service.
Mr. Tsang said, "The image of the phone is far from real. I may use it in future when the quality has improved."
Dr. Liew Soung Chang of the Information Engineering Department at The Chinese University of Hong Kong also said the quality of the phone is only marginally acceptable.
"As the beat-per-second of normal telephone lines is very low, the images transmitted may not be in good- quality," Dr. Liew said.
Another choice is available now. A marriage of the television set, a telephone and a televideophone adapter can send clearer and bigger images. A similar system was publicly promoted by Hongkong Telecom during the Lunar New Year.
The promotion was held in Hong Kong and Vancouver. The company invited people to use the new technology to communicate with their relatives and friends during the Chinese festival.
However, the system is not perfect yet. The equipment only can transmit a few shot of images in each second.
Fibre-optic facilities, digital systems, and integrated services digital networks are all highly promoted in the catalogue of the international service companies.
Dr. Liew explained that these technologies can improve the quality of messages transmitted.
"Users will not see it if this equipment has been installed, but they would notice the clearness of the messages," Dr. Liew said.
According to Dr. Liew, digital technology and ISDN would make the messages from abroad as good as if they were sent locally, except for the sound delay of long distance calls.
"The present technologies can do many things expected by people, and the size of the market decides whether they are launched or not," Dr. Liew said.
He explained that technological experiments are very costly, so the market should be big enough to support broad production to cover the substantial cost.
This is the basic rule of demand and supply, and, because of it, the companies are getting set for future plans.
Hongkong Telecom's Miss Choi stated that the company would continue to further the development of international communication.
"We now have offices in Hong Kong and Vancouver and the number of satellites used by us has been increased to two," she said.
CTI, on the other hand, plans to set up new offices in Japan, England and Australia in addition to the offices in Hong Kong, Toronto and Vancouver.
Dr. Liew commented, "Hong Kong has already done very good in this aspect because it adopts the technologies quickly. However, Hong Kong's companies do too little in technological research. They just buy technologies from others and then put them together to make a system."