CSL, the largest wireless network operator in Hong Kong, has teamed up with Taiwanese handset maker HTC to offer local mobile subscribers the first of a wave of new 4G smartphones set to reach the city this year.
The carrier, a unit of Australian telecommunications giant Telstra, is currently the sole network operator in Hong Kong that runs a high-speed 4G mobile infrastructure based on the industry standard called Long Term Evolution (LTE).
'We will have a full suite of 4G devices this year, including new smartphones, media tablets and routers,' said Mark Liversidge, the chief marketing officer at CSL. 'We expect to provide the new HTC device within this month.'
CSL was the first in Asia to launch a commercial 4G mobile network in November 2010, when it signed up key corporate customers as early adopters. Its LTE infrastructure was designed and built by ZTE, the mainland's second-biggest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, which also supplied the initial batch of 4G dongles used on laptop computers to access the network.
HTC, the world's largest maker of smartphones that run the Google-developed Android operating system, agreed to have its Velocity 4G handset exclusively available for pre-order from yesterday to subscribers on CSL's premium 1010 service.
The Velocity 4G features an 11.4cm touch screen, 1.5-gigahertz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera on the back and 1.3-megapixel camera in front, Bluetooth and Wi-fi support, 16 gigabytes of storage and an expansion slot for a memory card. On an LTE network connection, the HTC smartphone can deliver an internet download speed of up 100 megabits per second.