New T&T, New World Telephone and Hutchison Telecom have reached interconnection agreements with mainland operator China Telecom, a move that will affect earnings at Cable & Wireless HKT, according to report of South China Morning Post.

New T&T and New World confirmed on November 29 they will sign agreements this week. They declined to reveal more details.

It is believed that Hutchison Telecom also will sign a similar agreement, although company spokesmen didn't give any comment.

The deals will enable the three fixed telephone network services (FTNS) operators to bypass the SAR-to-mainland call gateway held by Cable & Wireless HKT which accounts for about half its long-distance call revenues.

According to New T&T marketing director Tong Cheung, most of Hong Kong's outgoing calls are made to China and they have been looking for an interconnection agreement with China Telecom for a long time.

Cable & Wireless HKT will lose the gateway license on January 1.