Earful
Listening in on the telecoms industry
In a recent forum on fixed mobile convergence, CSL director of business development Tony Seeto and Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) chairman Ricky Wong had a heated debate about the future licensing of broadband wireless access (BWA).
Mr Wong said he was disappointed that the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) had proposed in its second BWA licensing consultation paper that it would allow mobile operators to bid directly for a BWA licence, but at the same time ban BWA licensee operators mobile services until 2008.
Noting that almost all the mobile operators were profitable last year and that fixed-line operators - with the exception of PCCW - were still struggling to survive, Mr Wong said allowing mobile operators to also bid for BWA meant that Ofta was pitting them in direct competition with the struggling fixed-line industry.
'If you allow mobile to also run BWA, it is equivalent to letting them bully us,' Mr Wong said, adding 'it's equivalent to putting the two camps in the same ring for 'beast fighting'.'
As the only mobile operator sitting on the panel, Mr Seeto did not respond to the 'beast fighting' analogy by Mr Wong. He said, however, that Ofta should make the auction mechanism and spectrum costs similar to 3G, otherwise operators of BWA - being able to compete with 3G technology - would have an unfair advantage over 3G operators.
For fixed-line operators such as HKBN, spending as much money on BWA spectrum as mobile operators had spent on 3G spectrum in 2001 would not be attractive.
'Just like a land auction, values naturally fluctuate and the developer would have to adjust accordingly,' Mr Wong said. Associate director of Ofta Mr Ha Yung-kuen said the high spectrum fee for 3G was unlikely to be a benchmark for BWA spectrum.
