BEIJING-Six wireless operators with 11 networks is the daunting choice offered to Hong Kong’s techno-savvy consumers.
The mobile phone scene here is a lot brighter than one would have expected just one-and-a-half years ago, with the territory’s hand-over to the People’s Republic of China on July 1, 1997, and the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis a day later.
SmarTone Mobile’s subscriber base increased from more than 380,000 in June 1997, to more than 520,000 in June 1998, a surge of 37 percent, and personal communications services operator Sunday saw its customer numbers grow by 85 percent in the six months ending in September.
Subscriber numbers for Hong Kong’s wireless services generally are hard to obtain. The Office of the Telecommunications Authority publishes a monthly figure, which stood at nearly 2.6 million at the end of August, but the operators guard their numbers as if they were state secrets. The latest figures Hong Kong Telecom could provide go back to March 1998, but the company expects mobile device market penetration of about 50 percent by 2000, and a one-third market share for itself.
In the fast-paced Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, as the former British crown colony is now called, every month brings something new. So it comes as no surprise October’s rage of collecting 80-cent Snoopy figures-available with a McDonald’s meal-overtook September’s buying flurry of Nokia Corp.’s stylish new 8810 mobile phone.
First released in Europe, the handset spawned a thriving black market with some eager customers paying up to three times the list price. After its official Hong Kong release Sept. 11, lines at the dealers quickly grew out of proportion, only to disappear when stocks ran out.
Nokia’s 98-gram metal-encased handset, designed by Frank Nuovo, took Hong Kong by storm, where mobile phones have been a status symbol since their debut. The brick-sized analog sets, which sometimes were used as a weapon in bar brawls, have long since been replaced by ever smaller and lighter devices only useful as a communication tool.
PCS explosion
Six PCS networks operating at 1800 MHz vie for Hong Kong’s customers. Peoples Phone started its service in January 1997. In March 1998, SmarTone acquired P Plus Communications Ltd., one of the original PCS operators, for $95 million, and quickly integrated its operations to launch a revamped PCS service a month later. Total frequency spectrum allocated to SmarTone by OFTA allows for a capacity of more than 1.5 million subscribers.
Mandarin Communications’ Sunday network launched in September 1997. Sunday aims to project a new lifestyle representative of work-crazy Hong Kong, where everyone longs for “Sunday.” Hong Kong Telecom, Hutchison Telecom and New World Telephone also offer PCS services.
A survey carried out in June and July by the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department of the University of Hong Kong, found that PCS networks generally offer better coverage and quality than Global System for Mobile communications 900 networks, at least for outdoor reception, as the department didn’t do any indoor tests.
In September, Hutchison Telecom and SmarTone Mobile, two of the three companies operating both GSM 900 and PCS networks, launched their dual-band services in quick succession, Hutchison advertising the Nokia 6150 and SmarTone the Bosch 718 Worldphone. Hong Kong Telecom plans to launch its dual-band service by year’s end and said dual-band will be a focus for further development, together with intelligent networks.
Market firsts
Hong Kong can claim a number of firsts. In March 1993, SmarTone became the first in Asia to introduce a state-of-the-art GSM network. SmarTone introduced its enhanced full rate technology for the GSM 900 network in September 1997, enabling the customers to enjoy fixed-line voice quality from their mobile phones. SmarTone also was first in the world to launch the unstructured supplementary service data technology to provide a message-on-demand service.
In Asia, SmarTone led the industry with the introduction of a menu-driven interface, which uses subscriber identity module application tool kit technology, allowing the display of value-added services on the handset screen. In August, SmarTone became the first operator in Hong Kong to introduce online electronic billing, allowing customers to get their bills on the Internet by entering their mobile phone numbers and passwords on SmarTone’s Web site. The electronic bill also is sent to the customers by e-mail.
Hong Kong Telecom pioneered the world’s first mobile service in a subway. Hutchison Telecom put the world’s first Code Division Multiple Access commercial network, named Xinganxian, in service in March 1997. Together its GSM and PCS networks allow it to claim the largest number of cell sites in Hong Kong. The company also is Hong Kong’s leading paging network operator.
