Hong Kong's Office of the Telecommunications Authority is prepared to help facilitate fixed and mobile network operators to engage in commercial negotiations relating to the withdrawal of the regulatory guidance on "Mobile Party's Network Pays".

The withdrawal of the current MPNP arrangement is one of the major decisions set out in the "Deregulation for Fixed-Mobile Convergence" statement issued by the Telecommunications Authority April 27, 2007. Under the MPNP arrangement, the fixed-mobile interconnection charge is paid by a mobile network operator to the interconnecting fixed network operator for telephony traffic both from a fixed customer to a mobile customer, and from a mobile customer to a fixed customer.

"Although the MPNP arrangement is currently set to expire with effect from 27 April 2009, we have noted that there have been no substantial negotiations between the mobile network operators (MNOs) and fixed network operators (FNOs) about the transition from the MPNP environment into a fully deregulated one. With the two year transitional period entering into its second and final year, the TA considers that the FNOs and MNOs alike should treat the matter of a new arrangement with urgency and they should make genuine efforts at negotiations to achieve a smooth transition to the deregulated era," a OFTA spokesperson said in a prepared statement.