Hong Kong takes leading role in 4K Ultra HD television as top telecoms provider HKT, NowTV to roll out citywide service in early 2016

HKT and NowTV, the flagship telecommunications and pay-television businesses of Hong Kong mogul Richard Li Tzar-kai’s PCCW group, unveiled this week a city-wide, 4K ultra high definition service that will be launched early next year.

Alex Arena, the group managing director at HKT, said the introduction of this service marks a new milestone not only for the city, but the global telecommunications industry.

“Lots of people are talking about [deploying an extensive 4K ultra high-definition service], but Hong Kong is leading on this one,” Arena said on Wednesday.

The service, which will offer each HKT Netvigator and NowTV subscriber a single desktop appliance for streaming video and other online applications, is to have a pilot testing phase with selected customers from next month. The commercial rollout starts in the first quarter next year.

The term 4K ultra high definition refers to the most advanced visual resolution technology at present, displaying more pixels than regular high-definition TV sets. That means viewing 4K content that has more lifelike colours and sharper focus.