Market watch：Hong Kong-Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband

Sept. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- Summary

Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, takes pride in the way it has built one of the most sophisticated telecommunications markets in the world. Hong Kong-s regulator, the OFTA, has played a major role in developing the telecom sector. The island has put in place substantial infrastructure which supports one of the world-s highest penetrations of mobile phones and telephone services.

By early 2009, the territory had more than 3.7 million fixed telephone lines in service, giving 100% fixed line household penetration rate and 53% fixed line population penetration rate, among the highest in Asia as well as in the world. As a result of open competition in the local FTNS market and government-s withdrawal of its mandatory Type II interconnection policy, over 80% of residential households are able to enjoy an alternative choice of local fixed network operators. Furthermore, PCCW has a universal service obligation to provide a continuous basic service, including the provision of public switched voice telephone services anywhere in Hong Kong in a reasonable period of time.

Hong Kong has moved quickly in providing over 75% of all households with access to broadband connectivity. This has been accompanied by rapid growth in the Internet market. Broadband Internet subscriptions had well and truly surpassed dial-up subscriptions by end-2005. There were in excess of 5.2 million Internet users in the territory, gaining either dial-up or broadband access going into 2009. The number of broadband subscribers represented about 67% of the total Internet subscriber base, supported by a large number of ISPs. By end-2008, according to OFTA, Hong Kong had 1.92 million broadband subscribers and 935,000 dial-up subscribers. Broadband ARPU levels were increasing, as operators benefited from lower churn and higher revenue due to good quality content. For more information, see chapter 7, page 56.

Going into 2009 there were over 11 million mobile subscribers, representing an impressive penetration of close to 160%. This included over 2.9 million 2.5G and 3G subscribers. This penetration level puts Hong Kong in a tussle with Macau for first place in the Asian mobile market (both now well ahead of previous leader, Taiwan). This is remarkable considering that Hong Kong not only has the highest density of fixed telephone lines in the region but also that local calls on the fixed network are free. An ongoing price war cut mobile phone air-time rates to levels where operators became increasingly reliant on provision of non-voice value-added services to maintain margins. This, in turn, made 2.5G and 3G services of considerable importance. For more information, see chapter 9, page 78.

Key highlights:
*According to an OFTA benchmark survey released in October 2008, Hong Kong has the world-s most affordable prices for mobile and fixed-line voice services. In a study that compared Hong Kong with Singapore and six OECD economies, Hong Kong consumers were found to enjoy the lowest mobile and fixed-line services in all key categories. Hong Kong mobile prices were the lowest in the three categories of low, medium and high-usage and were roughly a third of the average.
*After being awarded 15-year CDMA2000 licence in the 850MHz band in 2007, PCCW

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Table of Contents


1. Key Statistics
2. Telecommunications Market
2.1 Overview of Hong Kong-s telecom market
2.2 Fixed Telecommunications Network Services (FTNS)
2.3 International telecommunications services
3. Regulatory Environment
3.1 Overview
3.2 Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)
3.2.1 Survey of effectiveness of competition
3.3 Awarding of licences
3.4 Telecommunication (Amendment) Ordinance 2000
3.5 Regulatory developments in 2008
3.5.1 Interconnection fees
3.5.2 GSM-1800 frequencies
3.5.3 Benchmark pricing
3.5.4 Wireless radio spectrum
4. Major Operators
4.1 Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW)
4.1.1 Sunday/PCCW
4.1.2 HKT Group Holdings Ltd & PCCW
4.2 City Telecom (HK) Ltd
4.3 Hutchison Whampoa Ltd
4.3.1 Hutchison Telecom
4.3.2 Hutchison Global Communications (HGC)
4.4 Wharf T&T Hong Kong (i-Cable)
4.5 New World Telecommunications Ltd (formerly New World Telephone)
4.5.1 CSL New World
4.6 Peoples (China Resources Peoples Telephone Co Ltd)
4.7 SmarTone-Vodafone
5. Telecommunications Infrastructure
5.1 Overview
5.2 Mainland connection
5.3 Full liberalisation of FTNS market
5.3.1 Local and STD calls
5.3.2 International calls
5.4 Submarine cable networks
5.4.1 Pacnet Global (formerly Asia Netcom/Asia Global Crossing)
5.4.2 Hutchison Global Telecommunications (Hong Kong)
5.4.3 C2C Pte Ltd/Pacnet Cable
5.4.4 Telstra/PCCW
5.4.5 Tricom Asia Ltd
5.5 Satellite networks
5.5.1 AsiaSat
5.5.2 APStar
5.5.3 Asia Broadcast Satellite
6. Internet market
6.1 Overview
6.1.1 Internet statistics
6.2 Internet traffic volume
6.3 Domain names
6.4 Wireless Internet
6.4.1 Free WiFi on Hong Kong buses
7. Broadband Market
7.1 Overview
7.1.1 Broadband statistics
7.2 Cable modems
7.3 Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
7.4 Regulatory issues
7.5 Digital 21 IT Strategy
7.5.1 Cyberport project
7.6 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
7.7 Major broadband operators
7.7.1 i-Cable Communications (Hong Kong Cable Television Ltd)
7.7.2 Hong Kong Broadband Network Services (City Telecom-CTInets)
7.7.3 PCCW
7.7.4 CPCNet Hong Kong (PSINet Hong Kong Ltd)
7.7.5 Pacnet (Pacific Internet)
7.7.6 SmarTone Broadband Services
8. Convergence
8.1 Triple play models
8.2 Quadruple play models
8.3 Television
8.3.1 Overview
8.3.2 Regulatory issues
8.3.3 Technology platforms
8.3.4 Pay TV
8.3.5 Satellite TV
8.3.6 Free-To-Air (FTA) broadcasting
9. Mobile Communications
9.1 Overview of Hong Kong-s mobile market
9.1.1 Mobile statistics
9.2 Regulatory issues
9.2.1 Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
9.2.2 Spectrum licensing
9.2.3 Personal Communications Services (PCS)
9.3 Handsets
9.3.1 iPhone
9.4 Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) services
9.5 Mobile voice services
9.5.1 Prepaid
9.6 Mobile data services
9.6.1 Short Message Service (SMS)
9.6.2 Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
9.6.3 Multimedia Message Service (MMS)
9.6.4 High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD)
9.6.5 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
9.6.6 Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE)
9.6.7 High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)
9.6.8 CDMA2000
9.7 Third Generation (3G) mobile
9.7.1 3G licensing
9.7.2 3G launches
9.8 4G
9.9 Mobile content and applications
9.9.1 Mobile TV
9.9.2 Mobile content access
10. Glossary of Abbreviations
Table 1-Country statistics Hong Kong-2008
Table 2-Telephone network statistics-November 2008
Table 3-Internet user statistics-November 2008
Table 4-Broadband statistics-July 2008
Table 5-Mobile statistics-July 2008
Table 6-National telecommunications authorities

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