The government also announced they will allow Hong Kong-licensed broadcasters to use their uplink and downlink facilities to carry third parties' programs. U.S. companies will find business opportunities in the provision of external telecommunications services and vendor equipment to potential satellite services operators. As of June 1999, there were 112 ISR licensees. Cost effectiveness - Deregulation of the international market has continued to drive down the cost of IDD service. This competitive environment forces long distance operators to emphasize cost effectiveness in their transmission services as they evaluate new technologies.
Satellite transmission offers an economical alternative to investing in terrestrial cables.
The tender for the first phase of the project is for the first five lots of land at the teleport site. This tender was opened in June 1999 and will close in August 1999. In many cases satellite transmission is their only choice because these areas lack a developed communications infrastructure and landline support. Supported by Hong Kong's well established fiber supported backbone, internet access, and other service facilities, there should be strong growth in demand for high speed broadband VSAT connectivity. Each broadcaster provides one Chinese and one English language channel.