PCCW mulls listing of telecom unit (Hong Kong)
Hong Kong’s PCCW is mulling over a separate listing of its fixed-line telephone business. The Hong Kong Company is in the preliminary stages of exploring the feasibility of a spinoff and separate listing.
PCCW, headed by Richard Li, has been discussing related issues with regulators in Hong Kong, but a decision has not been reached by the board. In addition to the fixed line phone company, PCCW owns media interests, broadband and mobile services in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
The telecoms operations may be listed in the form of a business trust. It is not clear whether PCCW will list the new business trust in Hong Kong or elsewhere.
Li is claimed to be trying to sell the debt-laden telecom assets. Li bought Hong Kong’s dominant phone operator from UK operator Cable & Wireless in 2000, in a deal valued at $28 billion.
Telstra and PCCW restructuring Reach (Hong Kong, Australia)
Australia’s Telstra and Hong Kong’s PCCW have signed an agreement to restructure their assets in their 50/50 joint venture international carrier, Reach.
The restructure will result in a division of the majority of Reach’s international assets between Telstra and PCCW. Reach will continue to manage the remaining joint assets, which are predominantly located in Hong Kong.
The restructure will give Telstra International Group greater control over the platform used to deliver end-to-end services, improving the quality of service offered to enterprise and global service provider customers. The structural changes to Reach are expected to be completed during the first half of 2011 by the management of Telstra International Group, PCCW and Reach.
As a result of this restructure, Telstra anticipates recognising an accounting gain of AU$50 million on signing and a further $80m to $100m on completion.
Hong Kong operators focus on innovation in mature market
New research reports has revealed that given Hong Kong’s market maturity and high penetration levels, researchers expect that the focus of operators to continue shifting from subscriber acquisition to subscriber retention, an effort to be pursued by increasing investment in service innovation.
It is expected that the Hong Kong telecom market to generate $4.8 billion in 2010, recovering to 2008 levels after a revenue decrease to $4.6 billion in 2009. In 2010, however, solid growth in mobile data usage and a recovery in mobile voice revenue due to increased usage levels will lead the market to renewed growth. The growth will continue over the next five years, when the territory’s total telecom services market revenue will advance at a 2.8% CAGR to reach $5.5 billion in 2015.
Data and content services will be the main growth drivers, with mobile data services rising at a 10% CAGR between 2010-2015 on the strength of increased adoption of data-centric devices, such as 3G data cards and smartphones. To that end, mobile operators have been very aggressive, introducing smartphone models, data cards, and embedded devices, most of which have been successful in encouraging higher levels of data usage.
Hong Kong’s broadband and mobile penetration rates are among the highest in Asia, respectively at 94% of households and 144% of the population at year-end 2010. Operators must give special attention to creating innovative content and value-added services because broadband connectivity is reaching saturation levels. They must also pay special attention to bandwidth capacity to avoid overload.
Mobile data growth will be driven by the efforts of operators, such as 3, PCCW, and SmarTone, which are aggressively offering mobile data cards, netbook data card bundles, and smartphones with unlimited data access plans. Pay-TV growth will benefit from operators’ bundled offerings for both new and existing customers, as well as by attractive pricing plans and FTTx expansion.
Hong Kong Operators Planning combined LTE Network
If reports are to be believed, Hong Kong’s PCCW is close to announce plans to build a new wireless network as a joint-venture with rival network, Hutchison Telecommunications.
As per reports, citing an interview with PCCW Managing Director, Alex Arena, details about the 4G network are expected to be announced within a few weeks.
The move would build on the strategy by Hong Kong’s richest family to fend off competition from China Mobile Ltd. and Australia’s Telstra Corp. in offering wireless services for smartphones such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone. PCCW and Hutchison would follow companies including Vodafone Group Plc and Telefonica SA in sharing networks to save costs.
According to Tucker Grinnan, head of Asian telecommunications research at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong, there is a broader trend globally for carriers to share networks. Companies focus less on network coverage and focus more on services and branding.
A joint-venture between PCCW and Hutchison Telecommunications won a license to offer LTE services in Hong Kong during a government auction last January. The planned network would share infrastructure, but would retail products to customers under their existing network brand names.
China Mobile criticizes CDMA network service quality
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The service quality of the CDMA2000 mobile network run by PCCW in Hong Kong has been criticized by China Telecom. The operator has claimed that the standard of CDMA roaming in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) is well short of GSM/W-CDMA networks.
ong Kong is the most important roaming destination for the subscribers of China Mobile which is the Chinese mainland’s sole CDMA network operator. However, the CDMA roaming situation at present cannot satisfy the needs of roaming users. It has also been claimed that the level of CDMA development in Hong Kong has declined in the recent years. Besides, coverage has also shrunk, network quality has declined, and the perceptions of roaming users have been greatly affected.
The operator hopes that auction would attract new entrants into Hong Kong to build and operate an 850MHz CDMA network. Spectrum in the 850MHz, 900MHZ and 2100MHz bands is planned to be sold by the regulator providing enough frequency to support a new public network across the territory.
