Contents - Connect-World

Mobile Data
“The wireless system
plays a significant role
in China where the
Internet has not been
widely popular.”
Kong a world leader in telecom and
mobile communications. One sees
everywhere a host of sophisticated
handset functions for videos, games,
push emails and many more, all working
smoothly on the citys high-speed
wireless networks.
Hong Kongs government plays an
important role in the exploitation of
mobile technologies by maintaining a
favourable environment for continuous
investment and fair competition.
The governments technology-neutral
and open access policies help promote
the development of mobile networks
by third-party content and application
providers all over the world.
Hong Kong is well positioned to customise
content and services for local
Chinese and other Asian market conditions
and requirements.
Customisation of content commonly
involves not only basic design, but also
language, metrics and local cultural
flavors as well. Its world-class telecom
infrastructure attracts overseas companies
to establish their regional
offices and headquarters in Hong
Kong where they can also more easily
capitalise upon the business potential
of the emerging China market.
Chinas WTO commitments have
tended to open its mobile and Internet
platform content, applications and
service markets to foreign investment.
Hong Kong, equipped with the necessary
infrastructure, serves as a springboard,
which overseas companies can
exploit to penetrate the worlds largest
and fastest growing telecom market.
For the territory itself, the CEPA
(Closer Economic Partnership
Arrangement) facilitates closer cooperation
with its mainland China counterparts
and provides easier access for
local operators to capitalise upon
Chinas immense telecoms VAS
(value-added service) sector.
Opportunities and challenges
ahead
Data services will provide operators
with the opportunity to diversify their
revenue streams. In Hong Kong, with
its over-saturated market penetration
and the leveling off of voice revenue,
operators count upon data, video and
multimedia applications to sufficiently
increase their ARPU (Average
Revenue Per Customer) to justify
investments in high-speed infrastructure.
Network and application developers
are tackling interoperability issues for
both infrastructure and terminal
equipment, building a community of
users for their products, minimising
development time and time-to-market
and making sure their applications
work within the available bandwidth.
Dealing with the processing constraints
of wireless devices and networks
are among their top priorities.
Applications will have to be tailored to
meet the requirements of each individual
market banks and financial
institutions, for example, require
standards and services that meet the
specific needs of their regulated and
demanding user community.
The relationship between China and
Hong Kong is becoming more intimate
as a result of the WTO and CEPA
agreements; the closer ties between
them promises many mutual benefits
including, importantly, for their
respective telecom sectors.
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Figure 2: It is likely to take several years before 3G reaches
high growth levels.
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