The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) is the legislative body responsible for regulating the

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

industry in Hong Kong. The OFTA has liberalized all telecom sectors and there are no foreign ownership restrictions. In the local fixed-line market there is neither a pre-set limit on the number of licenses issued nor deadline for applications. , there were nine

fixed-line A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...

licensees: PCCW-HKT, New World Telephone Limited, Wharf T & T Limited, Hutchison Global Crossing Limited,

Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited HKBN Ltd., commonly known for its subsidiary Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited (), is a Hong Kong-based Internet, communication and telecommunication company. HKBN was established on 23 August 1999, it is one of the largest residential and en ...

, Eastar Technology Limited, CM Tel. (HK) Limited, TraxComm Limited and HKC Network Limited. Consequently, the telephone density is, with 56 lines per 100 people, among the highest in the world. there are 197 licensed

Internet Service Provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

s (ISP) in Hong Kong, providing

dial-up Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...

or broadband services. Hong Kong is the second after

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in terms of broadband penetration rate (53%). With regard to mobile services, the OFTA awarded four 3G licenses in 2001:

Hong Kong CSL Limited CSL Mobile Limited () is a Hong Kong telecommunications company, which operates mobile network brands of "csl", "1O1O" and "Club SIM". CSL is a subsidiary of Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) and was Hong Kong's first mobile communications operator esta ...

, Hutchison 3G (HK) Limited, SmartTone 3G Limited and Sunday 3G (HK) Limited The first 3G mobile services were launched in January 2004. Moreover, these four 3G operators, together with

New World Mobility Sun Mobile Limited (branded as SUN Mobile), formerly known as New World Mobility Limited, is a mobile network operator brand and company in Hong Kong. It is a joint venture of HKT and . New World Mobility Limited and New World Mobility was a ...

and Peoples Telephone Company Limited operate a total of eleven GSM networks. Thus the mobile density is one of the highest in the world (106.3%).

Telecommunication company

, the penetration rate in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

was estimated at 240.8% over a population estimate of over 7.325 million. Hong Kong's telecom regulator is the

Office of the Communications Authority The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) is an executive arm of the Communications Authority in Hong Kong. It is the body responsible for telecommunications regulation (through the Regulatory Affairs Branch), antitrust enforcement (thro ...

(OFCA). {, class="wikitable" ! style="width:3%;" , Rank ! style="width:15%;" , Operator ! style="width:30%;" , Technology ! style="width:20%;" , Subscribers (in millions) ! style="width:32%;" , Ownership , - , style="text-align:right;" , 1 ,

CMHK China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited or CMHK (), is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile. The company was incepted in January 1997 and was the first PCS operator to launch such services in Hong Kong. CMHK is currently the largest telecom ...

(China Mobile Hong Kong) , GSM-1800 (

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...

, EDGE) 2100 MHz

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...

HSPA+ Evolved High Speed Packet Access, HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is the second phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7 and being further improved in later 3GPP ...

, DC-HSPA+ 900/1800/2100/2600(B7)/2300(B40) MHz LTE-A , 8.274 (June 2017) , China Mobile , - , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , HKT(including csl, 1O1O and Club SIM) , GSM-900/1800 (

, EDGE) 900/2100 MHz

, DC-HSPA+ 900/1800/2600(B7) MHz LTE-A , 4.324 (Dec 2018) ,

PCCW Limited PCCW Limited (formerly known as Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited) is a Hong Kong-based information and communications technology (ICT) company. The company is the majority owner of telecommunications company HKT Limited, and also holds a maj ...

( Pacific Century Group 28.97%, China Unicom 19.9%) , - , style="text-align:right;" , 3 ,

3 Hong Kong 3 Hong Kong (also known as 3HK or Three HK; ) is a telecommunications and internet service provider operating in Hong Kong by Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, operating under the global Three brand. ...

, GSM-900/1800 (

, EDGE) 900 MHz

, DC-HSPA+ 900/1800/2100/2600(B7)/2300(B40) MHz LTE-A , 3.276 (Dec 2018) , Hutchison Telecom , - , style="text-align:right;" , 4 , SmarTone , GSM-900/1800 (

) 850/2100 MHz

, DC-HSPA+ 900/1800/2100/2600(B7) MHz LTE-A , 2.47 (Dec 2018) , Sun Hung Kai Properties , - , align="right" , 5 , CUniq HK (China Unicom Hong Kong) , Using 3 Hong Kong , 0.87(Oct 2018) , China Unicom , - , align="right" , 6 ,

Hong Kong Broadband Network HKBN Ltd., commonly known for its subsidiary Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited (), is a Hong Kong-based Internet, communication and telecommunication company. HKBN was established on 23 August 1999, it is one of the largest residential and en ...

, Using CMHK and SmarTone , N/A , HKBN Ltd. , - , align="right" , 7 ,

SUN Mobile Sun Mobile Limited (branded as SUN Mobile), formerly known as New World Mobility Limited, is a mobile network operator brand and company in Hong Kong. It is a joint venture of HKT and . New World Mobility Limited and New World Mobility was a ...

, Using CSL Mobile , N/A , HKT (60%), Telecom Digital (40%) , - , align="right" , 8 , Birdie Mobile
, Using SmarTone , N/A , SmarTone Mobile Communications Limited{{cite web, url=https://www.hk01.com/%E7%A7%91%E6%8A%80%E7%8E%A9%E7%89%A9/154501/-%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1%E9%B3%A5Birdie-%E6%96%B0%E9%9B%BB%E8%A8%8A%E5%95%86%E7%99%BB%E5%A0%B4-%E5%85%8D%E8%B2%BB%E9%80%81SIM%E4%B8%BB%E6%89%93%E5%B9%B3%E5%83%B9%E6%BC%AB%E9%81%8A, title=【自由鳥Birdie】新電訊商登場免費送SIM主打平價漫遊, last=區慶威, website=香港01, date=29 January 2018, access-date=2018-02-27

Footnotes

Telecommunications in Hong Kong Telecommunication industry

Telecommunication company

See also

Footnotes