Old Hong Kong Telephone Numbering System

i lived on argyle from 67-78  original number was K-635797 which changed to (3)017632 in early 70s so the nt dial code would have been changed to 12 at that time.  [calls to the nt- well probably never made any!] don't ask me why i still remember those numbers (and a few other cholce ones) when i now don't know my current cell number off by heart!  so in answer to your question

Hi there,

In the seventies Hong Kong was among one of those places that the links between the Telco Exchanges (that is, the backbone infrastructure) implemented fibre optics.  It was also the time when key punch tone dialing residential phone sets started to be generally available.  Before that all we've got were those close to non-destructable heavy set rotary analog types.

Back then if you relocate, the TelCo wouldn't usually let you retain your residential phone number unless you pay very much like an arm and a leg for the general public.

Best Regards,

T

Yes, prior to the direct dial '12' prefix, calls to the NT were made by dialling '0' for connection to a manual switchboard.

In the early 1960's the manual switchboard for NT calls was located within the Mongkok Telephone Exchange Building in Bute Street then in the Waterloo Road Exchange.

When moving house, the same telephone number could be retained provided it was within the same telephone exchange area - the problem being that the general public were not aware of the boundaries of the various telephone exchange areas of HK Island,  Kowloon and the NT.

Hi harryhktc,

I remember in the old days (1980s), the telephone exchange areas on HK Island are as follows:
Number starting with......

2:  Central (and Sheung Wan?)

4:  Sai Ying Pun and Kennedy Town

5:  Aberdeen

6:  North Point to Chai Wan

7:  Causeway Bay (and Wan Chai?)

Also, I was told that numbers ending in "99" were mostly reserved for employees of the HK Telephone Company, so customers with those numbers might get better service.  Is that true?

Yes, telephone exchange areas were usually identified by the first digit of the telephone number, and yes, employees did  get a degree of choice - unofficially. Not particularly ending in '99' but also choosing numbers with '88' '08' '808' etc - not only because they considered '8' a 'lucky' number but because then - pre-digital - the numbers 9,8,0 and 1 could be dialled free from the newly introduced payphones, so with some knowhow they could call home without charge. Local calls within Kowloon and HK were of course 'free' but increasingly shopkeepers were hiding their phones previously visible and offered as an on the counter free service for customers or even passers-by.

Telephone Company employees in common with most Chinese - would avoid certain combinations with the number '4' and before the days of ICAC quite high 'premiums' would be paid to to be allocated a number with 8's or combinations of 83, 82 etc .

Only a then naive and unsuspecting gweilo as myself would be allocated the number 242242  ....

Harry.

In the mid-60s & early 70s, our phone number was five-digit only - 96537.  A previous number (mid-50s) was 43157.  Police HQ was 284284.

Thanks Harry!  I did not know one would pay extra money to get a good telephone number (just like vehicle registration marks).  Another relative of mine has a phone number ending in "7777".  I wonder if he knew someone from the telephone company.

Do you mind sharing how some numbers can be dialed free from a rotary payphone? Thanks!

Numbers 8,9,0 and 1 were included in emergency or 'free' service numbers such as 999 or the then free directory enquiries, so bypassed the coin mechanism. Intervening numbers could be tapped out on the handset cradle. To prevent this, the cradles were later fitted with damping mechanisms but it could still be done with a degree of skill by controlling the rotary return travel of the digit '0'. A skill well-practiced in the late 1940's and 50's during student days in he UK.   The introduction of electronic telephone exchanges (replacing the electro-mechanical ones) and digital signalling and push-button dialling put an end to it - though it can theoretically still be done using a high frequency variable sound generator.  Hardly worthwhile nowadays.

Btw - the number 284284 ..... ?

Well, perhaps everyone would like  "easy money until the day they die ...."  

Harry.

Once a 5 (M or Ng) is added to the front of the number (in the 70s?), the inherent good fortune was gone!  

Hi there,

I suddenly recall residents of some out-lying islands could call they neighbours by just dialing the last four digits of their phone numbers, as if they are within a PABX system. Don't know if it is still the same today though..

Thanks & Best Regards,
T

In the 1950s, the numbers had 5 digits, for example 61228 for Lyton House on Mody Road, and 22134 for a company on Connaught Road W.  In Cantonese, they sound like a short piece of music thus can be recalled decades later.

Hi tngan, I think each of the islands with a substantial population has a telephone exchange.  For example, all telephone numbers on Cheung Chau were 5-981-XXXX and those on Peng Chau were 5-983-XXXX.  I suppose the 981 and 983 are "sub-area codes".  Calling another number on the same island did not involve another exchange and therefore dialing 4 digits sufficed.  Perhaps harryhktc can confirm this?

Quite true, 'C'. Telephone service to some of the smaller 'fishermen' islands didn't even exist until the mid-70's when submarine cables were laid to their nearest main exchange landfall - either in the NT or HK Island. The demand for telephones on the smaller outlying islands was seriously underestimated, and the shortage of submarine cable pairs meant the re-introduction of 'shared service party lines' .

Then came VHF and mobile phones ....

H. 

Thank you for confirming, Harry!  It is a pity that unlike Towngas, HK Electric and China Light and Power, there seems to be no full-length book on the HK Telephone Company.  I don't think the current PCCW management would engage itself in a non-profitable task of writing a history book.    Would you like to give us more glimpses of how the HKTC was?  

I was working for HKTC 1973-1983 as Engineer, Senior Engineer, Executive Engineer then Principal of HKTC Management Training College. I worked on Exchange Design, Long Term Planning and Network Performance.

Not all the connections to O/L Islands was by cable. I remember one was by M/W and when first installed used to go off air as the tide changed!

Hello Folks, Ken, Harry

Just joined Gwulo as I was researching some HKTC history. I'm still at PCCW & HKT after first joining HKTC in 1980, going away and coming back again 15 years ago.....and probably have guessed who you two are (Harry and Ken).

Just to let you know that in my research for the folks in Tap Mun Island I found that a copper Submarine Cable was laid in 1977 and Telephone service first provided to Tap Mun at that time.

Trusting you are all well?!

PAUL B

Actually, whilst PCCW or HKT may not have produced its own history (since the old 1970s history of C&W in Hong Kong "Glad Tidings from Hong Kong"), they did sponsor the production of a hsitory of telecommunictions in Hong Kong which published by the Communications Association of Hong Kong and was written by Gertrude Layton after interviewing many of the "old lags".

Its called Hong Kong's Telecommunications Story and published in 2008. As you can imagine, any history pre-competition in 1995 was mainly around HKTC and Cable & Wireless.

Lawrence,

We were in Mountain Court, 11 Plantation Rd, The Peak and ours was 5 away from yours...we were  96532!

Cheers,

Chris Kilbee

Hi PaulB,

Just saw your message after almost 3 years.  Thanks for letting us know about the book 'Hong Kong's Telecommunications Story' and I will try to find a copy.

In 1960s, I was living on Wong Nei Chong Road in Happy Valley and the 6-digit telephone number that was used in our household began with a "7".

I was in Modreenagh in Plunketts Road next to Peak School with number 96075. The Peak telephone exchange was in a corner of our car park.

I've been going through the old ads for my family's company, C.E. Warren & Co. After its move to the China Building the firm's telephone number is given as Central 269 - presumably requested through the operator. That's from 1924 to 1930. I haven't found an ad with a phone number for 1931 but in 1932 the phone number is given as 20269. Does that mean you could dial straight through? Precisely which year did the change take place?

A quick glance of the Warren advertisements in the HK Telegraph from May 1930 indicates that the new 5 digit telephone number was in use from 5 May. Prior to that the old telephone number was advertised. 

Thanks moddsey. I've been ploughing through the Warren ads in the SCMP, not at all chronologically listed by the Proquest "Search" facility. The last 3-digit one I have is on 21 February 1930, so perhaps the change to 5-digits was introduced on 1st May 1930 or thereabouts. Maybe there was a general announcement about it.

After midnight on 3 May 1930, the new automatic telephone system came into operation and old magneto telephones could no longer be used. Telephone users were required to use telephones with dials for making calls. With the change, new automatic telephone numbers were introduced. Hong Kong Telegraph 1-3 May 1930 refers.

That clinches it perfectly. Many thanks for pinning down the date of the switch.

My father Jimmy was ex-GPO, and was seconded to the HK Telephone Company in late 1965.  He returned to the UK in 1984.  We always had easy to remember numbers.  First we had 221333, but then moved to Robinson Road.  My dad chose 456789 - and we had this amazing phone number for a total of three or four days.  Every kid in the colony was ringing us (calls were free remember), and my mother INISISTED the number be changed.  We soon settled with 458585.  This brought further confusion, as our good friends the Moseleys who lived three floors above us had 458855 - so we'd get calls for each other.

The only Harry I knew working for HKTC was Harry Lavery, an affable Scot who was actually a "teleboy" with my Grandfather in Glasgow in the early 50s.  Sadly, I heard he passed away at his home in Germany.

All the best

Tom Banks 

I was Kowloon 29910 in 1974, and HKT added an extra 3 in the middle to become Kowloon 299130

Gerry

Does anyone know if there were any sort of telephone directories for Hong Kong between 1925 and 1938?

Never forget the home phone number of 822643 on a black heavy phone with a heavy handle with two bulky ends that you speak into the lower end and could hear voice comeing out from the top end...When you dial this number, no person speaking voice came out but an annoying tone-I guess it's call a "busy signals" came out from the receiver end to the point that you just need to drop it down and let it hang on by the cord until an adult came over to put the receiver back up on the top of the black phone "box". : ) 

Yes, this was back in the 1960s if not late 1950s, before school age in Kowloon near Boundary St./Embarkment Rd. /Prince Edward Rd. on Duke Street...Yes, I think one needs to dial a 3 to reach other phone numbers on Kowloon side and a different number to reach Hong Kong side phone numbers. It's a rotatry black landline phone, heavy for a kid to lift and possibly expensive to have because I don't remember that it's popular to share your phone number with your classmates by the time I was in school/kintergarden....It's possible that only the "priviledged" were able to "own"/"rent?", or have a phone to use...and that was in the 1960s Kowloon side before 1968(9) when we had to move out from the family's "Ghost house"....harrasements calls received from the neighborhoods who got a hold of our phone number....from the phone book I guess. Too young to know or find out about all these "adult things"...

Yes no dial zero for emergency services, it's 999 for police and they will take care of all emergency services and that was in the 1960s before I passed the Secondary school's Entrance Exams.... Happy Oct. 1st? Edited on Sunday morning Oct. 2, 2022 after skimming through all these other more detailed descriptions on the phone system(network), cable network in Hong Kong/Kowloon and NewTerritories. By the way, even the radio and TV set, came with a cable. There was only one or two radio stations that came out from those palm size one button battery operated  radio and that came through free of charge. I think AM only, no FM. Sorry for side tracking....

I tried to respond to this again but somehow its didn't work so I'll try again. Still looking for any type of phone directory for early days of HK ( 1900s to 1939 ) I did find some listings for business in the 1920 Chronicle but it looks like no personal listings back then for HK. Unable to load jpeg image of one listing, but will try again later. File size is 68 k

The newspaper article in "HK Telephone Numbering" above describes the switchover from manual connections by an operator to an automated dialing system, and the changes to phone numbers that would be needed. The automated system would go into action in 1930.

@seemex, please could you try following the steps at https://gwulo.com/node/2076 to upload your jpeg? I've recently rewritten the instructions to work with the new site.

It seems that the Company distributed directory before 1905, 

Just found a news clip after the Kowloon Exchange was introduced, the phone numbers were updated through newspaper ads and they included both business and residential

The China Mail 1905 Sep 26 Pg 1 

As PaulB highlighted, I then found 3 books (One English, One Chinese, the one by CAHK bilingual)

https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Tidings-Hongkong-Austin-Coates/dp/01958402…

https://www.cahk.hk/article/29

https://www.amazon.com./%E6%88%B0%E5%89%8D%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%9B%BB%E…

All 3 books available in HK Public Library

https://webcat.hkpl.gov.hk/lib/item?id=chamo:415736&fromLocationLink=fa…

https://webcat.hkpl.gov.hk/lib/item?id=chamo:2794353&fromLocationLink=f…

https://webcat.hkpl.gov.hk/lib/item?id=chamo:3594383&fromLocationLink=f…

Also from China Mail on 1921.07.02 

Thank you. This is good news. I've wondered if such a thing existed. As there were Hong Lists for the treaty ports each year, also put out by the newspapers, I figured there had to be something for Hong Kong. Now I need to find one and see if I can make further headway. I have family that lived at 11 Shelley Street from the very early 1900s until 1944, so there could have been phone listing at some point over that long period of time.

I seem to have been able to upload the photo I've been trying, at long last. Seems today to be working fine. I'll see if this works and then finish the test. Voila!

So, this was just to show the listing from the 1920 Chronicle for China which was mainly Shanghai and treaty ports but also has some listings for Hong Kong. I knew there must be a more comprehensive directory for HK somewhere and now we know they exist. Just have to find some! My family lived at 11 Shelley Street from about 1903 until 1944, so I'm hoping to find a listing sometime along that period. They were also on Old Bailey Street prior to that. The photos below was just to show the numbering system...3 digits here but I've seen 2 digits and I think even single digit phone numbers

These are from 1970 年香港年鑑 published in 1970. The number for

Hong Kong island (H) xxxxxx

Kowloon (K) xxxxxx

For new territories (NT) xxxxxx

For Hong Kong island, 6 digits preceded by (H) or (5)?

For Kowloon, 6 digits preceded by (K) or (3)

For new territories,  6 digits preceded by (NT) . Not sure what digit.

@simtang

I recall in the mid-1970’s HK island (HKI) numbers were prefixed with 5, Kowloon with 3 and the New Territories 12. Later the NT changed to 0.

If you called a Kowloon number from elsewhere in Kowloon, no need for the 3. If from HKI or the NT - dial 3 first. The same applied to calling HKI from HKI and the NT from the NT.

All very complicated and goodness knows what people overseas thought of calling a number in the then Colony. Quite a headache I should think.

Pursuing this a bit further, as it raised a new possibility for tracing a family member's address that had not previously occurred to me, I found a 1938 HK phone directory listed in the New York Public Library Archives' collection of 'World Telephone Directories, 1900 – 2011', but it’s not been digitised and made available online.

 https://nyplorg-data-archives-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/collection/pdf_finding_aid/GRDWorldTelDir.pdf

 That’s the earliest survivor I could find in a quick search