Hong Kong's Internet service providers (ISPs) face consolidation and will compete with video-on-demand services for customers, ISP Association secretary Charles Mok says.
There were about 120 ISPs in the SAR, although the five biggest companies held about 90 per cent of the market, said Mr Mok, who also is general manager of HKNet.
'I think there will be major acquisitions and mergers among the larger ISPs,' he said.
Future trends on the Net would include high-speed access through cable modems and ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines, and ISPs would offer Internet telephony and virtual private network (VPN) services.
Hong Kong ISPs, including HKNet, had conducted tests on Internet telephony and some had considered obtaining VPN licences, he said.
At a Cisco Systems product launch, Mr Mok said ISPs wanted to offer subscribers international Internet services apart from worldwide Net roaming.
