A new mechanism to quickly inform the public of future network failures is expected to be implemented next month, Director-General of Telecommunications Au Man-ho says.

Speaking at a year-end media briefing today, Mr Au said the department is now working with concerned operators to review the outage-reporting mechanisms. This follows the damages to submarine cables a series of earthquakes near Taiwan caused on December 26.

He expects the new mechanisms to be implemented next month, he added.

OFTA will examine operators' contingency plans to ensure efficient backup capacity and effective diversity to deal with emergencies. It will consider issuing codes of practice or guidelines, if necessary, he added.

"Under a pro-competition and market-driven regulatory regime, there are sufficient incentives from market forces for operators to provide adequate diversity and redundancy to enable them to restore their services expeditiously in an emergency. In this case, the regulator should not lightly intervene in market players' operational matters and commercial decisions.

"We also consider Government investment in, or allocation of, standby capacity to be inappropriate as this approach would dilute the effectiveness of the market forces," Mr Au said.