Telecommunications

Overview

Hong Kong has one of the most sophisticated and successful telecommunications markets in the world. This has been
an important factor in Hong Kong's development as a leading business and financial centre. In 2014, the gross output of
the telecommunications sector amounted to HK$89 billion and employed around 18 700 persons.

All sectors of Hong Kong’s telecommunications market have been liberalised with no foreign ownership restrictions. The
government’s objectives are to provide a level playing field in the telecommunications market and ensure that consumers
get the best services available in terms of capacity, quality and price.

International Limited, Verizon Hong Kong Limited,

The Communications Authority SmarTone Communications Limited, Vodafone
Enterprise Global Network HK Limited, Hong Kong
The Communications Authority (CA) is an independent Telecommunications (HKT) Limited, China Mobile
statutory body established under the Communications Hong Kong Company Limited, 21 ViaNet Group
Authority Ordinance (Cap. 616) on 1 April 2012. It is a Limited, NTT Com Asia Limited, Equinix Hong Kong
unified regulatory body overseeing the broadcasting and Limited, China Telecom Global Limited, TVB Network
telecommunications sectors in Hong Kong. It comprises Vision Limited, PCCW Global (HK) Limited, Superloop
10 non-officials from various sectors of the community (Hong Kong) Limited and China Unicom (Hong Kong)
and two public officers as members. It regulates the Operations Limited.
broadcasting and telecommunications industries in Hong
Kong in accordance with the Communications Authority As a result of open competition in the local fixed carrier
Ordinance, the Broadcasting Ordinance, the services market, the active network rollout by fixed
Broadcasting (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance, the carriers since 1995 and the Government’s impetus to
Telecommunications Ordinance, the Trade Descriptions encourage further network rollout by the withdrawal of
Ordinance and the Competition Ordinance. It also mandatory Type II interconnection policy at the end of
enforces the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance. June 2008, 86.7 per cent and 78.9 per cent of
residential households were able to enjoy a choice of
The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA), the at least two and three local fixed networks respectively
CA’s executive arm and secretariat, assists the CA in as at March 2015.
administering and enforcing the relevant ordinances
governing the broadcasting and telecommunications Fixed-line users can make an unlimited number of calls
sectors. within Hong Kong on payment of a fixed monthly
charge. With the emergence of new technologies,
Internet protocol telephony services are also available
Local Fixed Carrier Services in the market. Further, under the unified carrier licence
jointly held by PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited and
The local fixed carrier services market is fully liberalised. Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Limited, the
There is no pre-set limit on the number of licences issued, licensee has a universal service obligation to provide a
nor deadline for applications. Furthermore, there is no good, efficient and continuous basic service, including
specific requirement on network rollout or investment. the provision of public switched telephone services to
The level of investment is determined by the market. consumers anywhere in Hong Kong within a
reasonable period of time.
As at May 2016, there were 25 licensees permitted to
provide local fixed carrier services on a competitive basis. As at March 2016, there were around 4.22 million fixed
They are PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited and Hong Kong lines, including about 2.36 million lines for residential
Telecommunications (HKT) Limited, New World customers. The telephone density was over 57 per
Telecommunications Limited, Wharf T&T Limited, cent by population or 95 fixed lines per 100 households,
Hutchison Global Communications Limited, Hong Kong which was among the highest in the world.
Broadband Network Limited, Towngas
Telecommunications Fixed Network Limited, ComNet Local fixed carriers are required to facilitate fixed
Telecom (HK) Limited, TraxComm Limited, HKC Network number portability which enables consumers to switch
Limited, Hong Kong Cable Television Limited, Reach to another local fixed operator without having to
Networks Hong Kong Limited and Reach Cable Networks change their telephone numbers.
Limited, Telstra International HK Limited and Telstra
 As a major telecommunications and internet hub in the
Fixed Broadband Services region, Hong Kong has seven submarine cable landing
stations and is connected to nine regional and trans-
Fixed broadband Internet access services are very popular Pacific submarine cable systems. It is also connected
in Hong Kong. With the increased competition and with the overland cable networks of all four
coverage of broadband service using asymmetric digital telecommunications operators in the Mainland. As of
subscriber line (ADSL), fibre-to-the-building (FTTB)/fibre- March 2016, the total equipped capacity of external
to-the-home (FTTH), hybrid fibre coaxial cable and other telecommunications facilities was over 35 100 Gbps
technologies, broadband networks cover virtually all (Gigabits per second).
commercial buildings and households. As at May 2016,
there were 217 Internet service providers licensed to
provide broadband services. As at March 2016, there
Mobile Services
were about 2.35 million registered customers using fixed
broadband services. Fixed broadband services are Competition in public mobile services is vibrant. As at
currently available at speeds up to 10 Gbps (Gigabits per May 2016, there were four mobile network operators,
second). In the residential market, over 84 per cent of the namely, China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited,
households are using fixed broadband service. Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Limited,
Internationally, Hong Kong’s fixed broadband penetration Hutchison Telephone Company Limited and SmarTone
rate and average broadband speed are among the highest Mobile Communications Limited, providing a wide
in the world. According to the State of the Internet 4th range of public mobile services. The availability of
Quarter, 2015 Report published by the Internet content mobile number portability service since March 1, 1999
delivery provider Akamai, Hong Kong has an average has contributed to promoting effective competition
peak connection speed of 105.2 Mbps which is one of the among the mobile network operators as it allows
highest in the world. customers to retain their telephone numbers when they
switch to another mobile network operator.
Operators have been vigorously rolling out Wi-Fi networks.
As at May 2016, there were 43 147 public Wi-Fi hotspots In March 2016, the number of mobile service
in the city and the number continues to grow, and free Wi- subscribers was 16.72 million, representing one of the
Fi services were available to the public in 603 government highest penetration rates in the world at about 228.3
premises. per cent. Among these subscribers, 14.69 million were
3G/4G service customers.

External Telecommunications Services Other than basic voice services, mobile data services
are very popular among consumers. As at March 2016,
As at May 2016, there were 266 licensees authorised to local mobile data usage recorded a surge to 20 557
provide external telecommunications services (ETS) in Terabytes (i.e. 20 557 188 Gigabytes), or an average
Hong Kong. of 1 358 Mbytes per 2.5G/3G/4G mobile user. This
represents a growth of 1.18 times in the mobile data
International Direct Dialing (IDD) service to most countries usage over the same period in 2015 and 1.58 times
and regions of the world is available. In 2015, the volume over the same period in 2014.
of outgoing and incoming traffic for telephone calls were
8 351 million minutes and 2 002 million minutes In addition to 3G services, all four mobile network
respectively. operators have deployed 4G services utilising Long
Term Evolution (LTE) technology. This has enabled
Competition has resulted in a substantial reduction in IDD mobile service subscribers to enjoy data downlink
call rates and improved quality of services. speeds of up to 375 Mbps. With a wide range of high-
speed mobile data services available in the market,
subscribers are able to download and upload large files
External Telecommunications Facilities via the Internet and enjoy faster and better quality
video-streaming and web-browsing on mobile devices.
As at May 2016, there were 42 licensees permitted to
operate either external cable or non-cable based facilities With the launch of the CDMA2000 service in
for the provision of external telecommunications services. November 2008, visitors can use roaming services
through the CDMA2000 network, in addition to the
Hong Kong adopts the open sky policy in regulating the GSM900/1800, W-CDMA, and LTE networks.
provision of satellite services. Satellite-based
telecommunications and television broadcasting services
are provided via a multitude of satellites in the region with Office of the Communications Authority
more than 220 satellite earth station antennas operated by June 2016
a number of fixed carriers and broadcasters.