Broker phone service eyes June start

Internet brokerage Charles Schwab expects to launch its mobile telephone stock trading service in June and is in negotiations with more than one cellular telephone operator to provide the service.

The company already has an agreement with SmarTone Mobile Communications to provide mobile telephone stock trading service but wants to extend it to other networks.

'We will start with SmarTone as our provider but after that we can go for more than one provider,' Charles Schwab regional general manager Christina Hui Sui-wing said.

The service will be provided using wireless application protocol (WAP) technology.

More than 90 per cent of the brokerage's transactions in Hong Kong are on-line and the introduction of WAP technology is expected to ensure most transactions are done over the Internet.

TD Waterhouse - which has already introduced WAP technology to provide financial information to Cable & Wireless HKT's cellular subscribers - also intends to launch its mobile telephone stock trading service in June.