Points to Note before Service Subscription

A telecommunications service contract is a legally binding document. Before signing a service contract, you should read the details of the contract carefully and make sure that you fully understand the service plan, contents and terms of the service contract. You should pay attention to the following details -

• level of charges;
• discounts or rebates offered (if any);
• availability of value-added services and applicable charges;
• free service period (if any);
• service commencement date and bill cycle date;
• contract expiry date;
• service termination policy; and
• whether the contract applies fair usage policy such as data usage limit or speed restriction after data usage has exceeded specified quota and whether there will be any extra charges imposed by the operator on usage beyond specified quota or limit.

If you have any queries, you should check with the operator or its sales representative.

Since July 2011, all major fixed and mobile operators have implemented the Industry Code of Practice for Telecommunications Service Contracts (the "Industry Code"). Under the Industry Code, consumers who enter into new individual / residential telecommunications service contracts with the operators concerned enjoy enhanced protection.

Under the first revised version of the Industry Code, consumers with a contract entered into, renewed, extended or replaced between 1 May 2015 and 30 September 2023 enjoy additional protection as follows:

1. improving the arrangement for contract termination so that the arrangement must not cause inconvenience to customers or involve unreasonable delay;
2. improving the arrangement for the provision of written confirmation for extension or renewal of contracts;
3. stating clearly in the contract the calculation of termination charge or the maximum amount involved, if it is not feasible for the operators to provide service at the relocated premises due to the absence of network coverage;
4. stating clearly in the contract the calculation of the first bill and the last bill within the contract term; and
5. encouraging operators to implement better cooling-off period arrangement with greater flexibility.

Under the latest version of the Industry Code, consumers with a contract entered into, renewed, extended or replaced since 1 October 2023 enjoy additional protection as follows:

1. stating clearly in the first few pages of the principal contract documents information regarding key contractual features (e.g. applicable service charges) and/or direction on where to obtain further details of such features;
2. improving the arrangement for the provision of written confirmation for contracts by targeting to expedite its issue from 10 to seven working days;
3. encouraging operators to provide additional consumer protection measures (e.g. service trials);
4. improving the arrangement for contract termination by allowing the customer to give the service provider a notice of termination as early as 60 days in advance of contract expiry; and
5. encouraging operators to provide better protection to senior customers aged 65 and above (e.g. quality control calls before contract conclusion, or dedicated customer support channel).

Consumers are advised to consult the operators as to whether their prospective telecommunications service contracts would be covered by the protection under the Industry Code before agreeing to enter into, renew, extend or replace the contracts.

For the previous and current versions of the Industry Code and the list of telecommunications service providers who have adopted it, please visit the webpage provided by the Communications Association of Hong Kong (CAHK): http://www.cahk.hk/cop/en_contracts.

CAHK is a trade association for Hong Kong's communications industries and its official website is at http://www.cahk.hk.