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Carrie Lee

HONGKONG Telecom's international calls service is to meet new competition, with a rival operator poised to slash tariffs next month.

  Canada-based City Telecom Inc (CTI) - whose previous round of price reductions was as recently as August - is to cut call charges again.

  City Telecom (HK) regional director Ricky Wong Wai-kay said yesterday the cut would be of a similar order to the previous one, which averaged 20 per cent.

  It would affect calls to a number of places not covered in the previous cuts.

  CTI and Hongkong Telecom are the territory's two major long-distance call operators whose subscribers can dial direct from Hong Kong to other countries.

  Mr Wong said the next cuts would include calls to Asian countries.

  The move will intensify the price war between the two operators.

  ''Our strategy is to get lower profit margins and greater sales,'' said Mr Wong.

    On August 1, both CTI and Hongkong Telecom cut charges for calls to selected countries.

        CTI cut its charges for calls from Hong Kong to North America and most European cities by an average 20 per cent.

  That left CTI's charges for such calls about 20 per cent lower than Hongkong Telecom's after the latter's own price-cutting exercise.

  Hongkong Telecom cut charges by 24 per cent for calls to Canada, and by 20 per cent for calls to the US.



HK Telecom rival plans new round of price cuts