Hutchison Telecom to add new 4G network, ramp up infrastructure in Hong Kong later this year
CK Hutchison Holdings’ subsidiary says it will roll out a new network based on the Chinese-developed TDD-LTE standard and combine this with its existing 4G infrastructure
Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong, the city’s second-largest wireless network operator, plans to deploy an expanded 4G infrastructure from the second half of this year to meet growing demand for data capacity.
Chief executive Peter Wong King-fai said on Monday that the company has already started to “re-farm part of its 900-megahertz spectrum for 4G long-term evolution (LTE) service” to prepare for so-called carrier aggregation to boost its network bandwidth.
He added the company will roll out a new 4G network based on the Chinese-developed standard called time-division duplex LTE, combining that with its existing 4G infrastructure based on the more mature frequency division duplex LTE standard.
Hutchison Telecom, a subsidiary of billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings, runs mobile services in Hong Kong and Macau under its “3” brand, while its fixed-line residential operations fall under “3Home Broadband”.
The company also provides sophisticated fixed-line network connections, high-speed Wi-fi, data centre and cloud computing services to enterprises under the Hutchison Global Communications (HGC) brand.