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The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) today (February 2) invited interested parties, including all incumbent telecommunications carrier licensees and broadcasters, to express their interests in bidding for spectrum for the provision of mobile TV services and/or other digital broadcasting services.
A public consultation, initiated by the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau, is under way to solicit public views on issues related to the provision of mobile TV services and/or digital broadcasting services in Hong Kong. In accordance with the public consultation paper entitled "Consultation on Digital Broadcasting: Mobile Television and Related Issues" issued on January 26, expression of interest will be invited separately from bodies and organisations in bidding for the relevant spectrum for the provision of mobile TV services and/or other digital broadcasting services.
A spokesman for OFTA said, "The purpose of this Expression of Interest exercise is to gauge the level of commercial interest in launching the various digital broadcasting services discussed in the consultation paper, including mobile TV services, digital terrestrial TV services, digital audio broadcasting services and ancillary datacasting services."
"The information collected through this exercise will be used for analysis by the Government for the preparation of a draft implementation framework for mobile TV services for a second round of public consultation. Having said that, individual Expression of Interests submitted will not be disclosed to the public and commercially sensitive information such as the identities of the submitting parties/companies will be kept confidential," the spokesman said.
The spokesman emphasised that the invitation did not constitute an offer or invitation to participate in the bidding of spectrum for the provision of mobile TV services, nor did it constitute the basis of any contract which may be concluded in relation to the bidding exercise or in respect of any allocation of spectrum for the provision of mobile TV services.
Interested parties are invited to send their submissions to OFTA on or before April 25, 2007, by any of the following means:
By post:
Office of the Telecommunications Authority, 36th Floor, Wu Chung House, 213 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai
Attn: Senior Telecommunications Engineer (Advisory & Support) 1
By fax:
(852) 2904 7141
By e-mail:
mobiletv_spectrum@ofta.gov.hk
Details about the invitation can be downloaded from OFTA's web site at www.ofta.gov.hk. The consultation paper on mobile TV services and related issues can be downloaded from www.citb.gov.hk/ctb/eng/broad/info-consult.htm.
Ends/Friday, February 2, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:28
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