HKT bets on scale to expand its share of city's mobile services market
Fresh from its CSL acquisition, city's largest network operator 'ready to go to market'
HKT, the telecommunications arm of Richard Li Tzar-kai's PCCW, has unveiled a three-brand mobile strategy, a retail network of 137 shops, streamlined pricing plans and the widest range of smartphones on offer in Hong Kong as it marked 55 days since its HK$2.43 billion takeover of rival CSL New World Mobility.
Barclays has estimated that the enlarged HKT has about 31 per cent share of mobile subscribers in Hong Kong and about 42 per cent share of service revenue. Government data shows total mobile subscriptions in the city was about 17 million at the end of March.
The Communications Authority calculates that HKT controls 39 per cent of the 537 megahertz of 2G, 3G and 4G spectrum - the radio frequency bands over which mobile network services are provided - assigned by the government.
Arena said that the company's three brands included "New World Mobility" for affordable mobile network services, "1010" for premium individual and corporate accounts, and "csl." as the mainstream "go-to-market brand that has widest applicability for all sorts of socio-economic groups".
The integration of CSL's shops has created the city's largest mobile retail network that offers the largest number of smartphone brands, from Apple to Xiaomi. "We're now selling iPhones," Arena declared, pointing to a welcome change of circumstances for HKT after acquiring CSL.
HKT initiated a judicial review last year against the regulator for not acting on a complaint it filed in 2012 against Apple Asia. HKT alleged that Apple "locked" the subscriber identity module card for the iPhone 5 and later models, which prevented its subscribers from connecting the devices to its 4G network. The Telecommunications Appeal Board on competition provisions rejected the case in May.
On the perception that HKT increased its monthly tariff plans, Arena said: "We've never offered the lowest prices [in the market] because we've always been the one to offer the most value and better services."
