'Young ladies are now taking off their clothes for mobile operators,' said Kim Chu-whan, Qualcomm director of business development in South Korea.

But it is little wonder why data services have become so popular. Downloading content such as music or soccer betting information is relatively inexpensive, helping to make South Korea one of the most profitable and fastest-growing 3G markets in the world. A music download costs just 2,743 won (HK$18). This explains why data services account for about 13.8 per cent of a customer's average monthly bill of 44,572 won, according to Korea's largest mobile operator SK Telecom, which commands 54 per cent of the market.

But in Hong Kong, data services have yet to take off.

Over the past three years, data services have remained stagnant at about 3 to 5 per cent of an operator's revenue. Few operators have developed interesting new services, while the rest have focused on cost cutting to maximise profits.

The city's biggest operator, Hutchison Telecom, has put off the launch of 3G in its home market by almost a year, with Hutchison chairman Li Ka-shing saying he is in no hurry to start the services.

One company which hopes to bring Hong Kong a step closer to what has been achieved in South Korea is fixed-line player City Telecom.

Six months ago, the long-distance discounter announced it wanted to enter the mobile arena. It also hopes to expand its pay-television services from 11 channels to more than 40.

Now it believes it can combine the two ambitions to offer advanced, high-speed mobile services with an investment of as little as HK$600 million.

'To us, 3G is equivalent to a low-cost mobile and video network,' City Telecom chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay said in Seoul.

'What we hope to achieve is to create a product which can offer video services at home and travel with a person anywhere. The more powerful the product, the more profit it will get... that is why I have great respect for Li Ka-shing's 3G vision.'

But Mr Wong does not have a seemingly limitless supply of cash at his disposal, unlike Hong Kong's richest man. City Telecom has just over HK$300 million in cash.

Still, it believes it can set up a faster but cheaper mobile network called CDMA 2000 EV-DO (evolution-data optimisation) in about a year with just HK$600 million.

Mr Wong argued Hong Kong needed a CDMA 2000 network, claiming it was about two years ahead of competing technology WCDMA, which the city's four 3G licence holders plan to use.

City Telecom sees an opportunity to break into mobile services if it can convince the Office of the Telecommunications Authority to reassign under-utilised CDMA spectrum in the 800 megahertz frequency held by Hutchison Telecom and CSL. This would open the door to new entrants when the pair's licences expire in 2005.

But should City Telecom gain access to the spectrum, it will have to fend off challenges from at least three other fixed-line networks, including Wharf T&T and PCCW.

Mr Wong said his company's chances of eventually offering mobile services were not high.

'Our chance of getting a 3G spectrum is perhaps 10 per cent, but I hope someone will offer [high-speed multimedia] services in Hong Kong. It does not have to be us,' he said.

In the meantime, helping Hong Kong to look more like South Korea's mobile data services market is but a dream and a hope.

Rivals say keep dreaming, arguing pricing competition leaves little room for new entrants.

New World Mobility chief executive Norman Wai said: 'Mobile rates in Hong Kong are cheap. How can they go cheaper? I can't see how latecomers can survive in the market.'