A price war has broken out, to the delight of iPhone users in the city, as Smartone-Vodafone becomes the second telecom operator to offer 3G iPhone services.
Rival operator 3 Hong Kong sweetened its subscription plans yesterday in response to Smartone's launch of such services on the same day.
'We are entering into a price war with Smartone,' said Max Wong, a spokeswoman for 3 Hong Kong. 'After reviewing Smartone's current price plans, we've come up with new plans.'
The mobile operating arm of Hutchison Telecommunications, which had been running 3G iPhone services since mid-2008, added 500 minutes of basic airtime to each of its price plans for such services.
The airtime in 3 Hong Kong's HK$138 monthly plan with a 16-gigabyte iPhone 3GS, for example, was increased to 900 minutes to beat a Smartone subscription that features the same monthly fee and same handset model.
Smartone's plan offers a basic airtime of 800 minutes, twice the basic airtime under 3 Hong Kong's old subscription plan.
The Smartone plan charges HK$3,680 for the handset, on a par with the old 3 Hong Kong plan.