Hong Kong CSL, the city's largest mobile-telephone operator, and smaller rival SmarTone-Vodafone are threatening to steal more customers from fixed-line competitors with software upgrades that allow faster services.
CSL will announce the launch of its high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) upgrade to its third-generation services today, following the move to the standard by SmarTone-Vodafone last week.
The upgrades allow access speeds to be increased over the next year to where computers, at present confined to fixed-line links or local Wi-Fi centres known as hot spots, will have mobile access faster than using PCCW and similar broadband services.
Fixed-line operators, meanwhile, must wait for the government to let them fight back using wireless services.
Demand for high-speed or 3G mobile services has been sluggish since they were launched four years ago, with only 10 per cent or 960,000 of the city's eight million mobile subscribers using 3G by June.
Operators are still paying for 3G licences bought in 2001 for HK$1.3 billion each at the height of market expectations for the technology. The licences are valid for 15 years.
They hope the move to HSDPA, with no hardware investment and capital expenditure that has been included in the 3G network construction budget, will draw customers away from fixed-line operators' fastest services.