HK's 3G Auction May Be Delayed By Legislators

Hong Kong's auction for third-generation phone licenses could be delayed until the end of the year, if the relevant legislation can't be passed before the end of the current legislative session, according to a newspaper report Saturday.

The report, in Hong Kong's iMail newspaper, said members of the city's Legislative Council are concerned they won't have enough time to scrutinize the proposed amendments to the Telecommunications Ordinance legislation before the end of the session, on July 11.

The newspaper said legislators waived objections to the principal legislation, but they may still delay subsidiary legislation covering the details of the 3G auction process.

"If the subsidiary legislation can't be passed, then we will have to wait until October," the newspaper quoted Deputy Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting, Eva Cheng Yu-Wah, as saying.

"Then we won't have the bidding until the end of the year and you don't know what will happen to the telecoms market by then. Hong Kong could lag behind other countries. And international companies could go elsewhere."