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