appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Less than two years after its start, Hutchison Telecom has relaunched its CDMA digital mobile network.

  In a move reminiscent of the launch of Hongkong Telecom's low-cost One2Free brand, Hutchison is aiming for the younger and more cost conscious end of the market with some of Hong Kong's lowest rates on the CDMA (code division multiple access) system.

  The service has been renamed Xin Gan Xian to reinforce its new identity and distance itself from the network's earlier teething problems.

  The company said any glitches had been overcome.

  With only 50,000 subscribers, it has had a slow beginning since its launch in October 1995.

   At the time, Hutchison was the first in the world to begin a commercial version of the service, beating even operators in the United States, where the standard was invented.

  CDMA technology, developed by the US military, has the attribute of being able to fit twice as many callers over a given spectrum as the more-established GSM (global system for mobile) standard.

  Hutchison Telecom managing director Dennis Lui said the higher cost efficiency savings would be passed on to customers as lower charges.

  Five tariffs have been created to accompany the relaunch, the cheapest of which offers 100 minutes of free calls for $190 a month. Handsets cost between $1,000 and $2,000.

  Hutchison said it had spent about $1 billion on building the network and had a target of 150,000 subscribers by the end of this year.

  One of the reasons CDMA has had difficultly gaining acceptance is that GSM is so widely entrenched in Asia and Europe.

  Motorola is a 30 per cent joint owner of Hutchison's Hong Kong cellular business.

   Richard Sell, general manager of its Asia-Pacific cellular infrastructure group, said CDMA was gaining wider acceptance in Asia, which should increase the network's 'roaming' ability.



Hutchison relaunches CDMA