Broadband in Hong Kong: fast, very fast

Hong Kong is a city near China, which is different from China. In Hong Kong we have our own broadband provider with high broadband penetration rate. The fiber optical is also developed by Hong Kong people Sir Charles Kuen Kao. Nearly every part of Hong Kong has internet. 

The internet is well-developed in Hong Kong and people rely on the internet for their daily life, in a Broadband Society and cloud journalism environment. In this essay, we will analyze, with the collaboration of Lin Wing Kwan, from UPF, the questions you may rise when talking about broadband in Hong Kong.

The internet society first appear in Hong Kong in 1992. In 1992, the internet first established in Hong Kong, only 0.85% of the population in Hong Kong using internet. And only 25 years passed, the number of people using internet increased sharply to 89.42% in 2017. However, compared to other countries near Hong Kong, like Singapore (88.166%), Korea (95.89%), Japan (84.588%) and China (54.3%), Korea have the highest percentage of population using internet, with 95.89%. Till, 2014, there are more than 3 billion Internet users in Asia. Estimated by ITU, at the end of 2019, there are all over 53% of population access to the internet. Therefore, we can see that the usage of internet in Hong Kong is much higher than the world average.

The price of the broadband in Hong Kong is not cheap among the world, but the rate is still competitive. Spain ranked 64 in the ranking of internet price of the world, yet Hong Kong ranked 129. The average price per package of internet is 72USD (65eu) in Hong Kong. However, we do have some cheaper plans to join, it all depends on how many MB the users want. Normally for 1000MB plans, the price is around 40eu in Hong Kong.

The competition between the internet providers in Hong Kong is intense as there are over 200 internet providers in Hong Kong. Netvigator (by PCCW limited) is the first internet provider in Hong Kong since 1996. Before 1996, seldom Hong Kong people use internet. Other providers like HKBN metro Ethernet, I-Cable Broadband are also common for Hong Kong people. In 2010, the 1st Asia-Pacific Internet Governance Forum was organized in Hong Kong, the internet gradually becomes a must for Hong Kong people.

There are 4 main mobile network operators in Hong Kong, including 3 Hong Kong, CSL, Smartone, China Mobile. However, internet company like HKBN Metro Ethernet also start to provide mobile network services because more and more people choose to use mobile internet instead of fixed broadband. Birdie is a new company with different business running method. Normally the users need to sign one/two-years contract with the mobile internet operator and they need to pay 18HKD(2eu) service fee every month. People cannot easily change their network plan, or they can only change to a more expensive plan after they signed the contract. It is also very troublesome if the users want to change their mobile network providers with their own number. Some mobile network providers will even automatically renew the users’ contract within the gray zone of law. However, Birdie offers the user the mobile network service without any contract and service fee. People can stop or change their mobile network plan with the Birdie app easily. The users can even share their cellular data with their friends. They also offer travel plan that the users can buy the cellular data for other countries like Taiwan or Japan. This running method is new in Hong Kong and being support by a lot of young people. For Mobile virtual network operators, until December 2019, there are 24 operators in Hong Kong. The Mobile subscriber penetration rate in Hong Kong is really high thanks to the common in mobile phone. Some Hong Kong people will have more than 3 smartphones because of their work. Till October 2019, The Mobile subscriber penetration rate in Hong Kong is 279.6%. For mobile cellular, Hong Kong has the highest number of subscriptions per 100 people among other 4 countries, China (115/ per 100 people), Japan (139/ per 100 people), Korea(130/ per 100 people)), Singapore(146/ per 100 people). In Hong Kong, over 259/ per 100 people subscribed.

Despite the fact that the growth in using mobile network in Hong Kong is sharp, the fixed broadband is still common in Hong Kong. According to Office of the communications Authority of Hong Kong, the household broadband penetration rate until 2019 is 92.9%. The fibre-to-the-home / building (FTTH/B) household penetration rate is 75.1%. Public Wi-Fi access is not common in Hong Kong because most of the Hong Kong people have their one cellular data and own Wi-Fi. People also believe accessing public Wi-Fi will lead to the leak of private information. However, there are still 57311 public Wi-Fi access points in Hong Kong. Other main broadband providers in Hong Kong including PCCW, Hutchison Global communication broadband (HGC) and Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN). Both of these broadband providers offer the users with ultra-fast broadband. Netvigator (by PCCW) provides users with 10G FTTH services. Early in 2011, HKBN started to offer the ultra-fast internet speed to the users, 50 megabits per second for downloading and 20 megabits per second for uploading. Nowadays, HKBN even provides with 2Gb bandwidth plan, the “True Fibre-To-The-Home.”

Fibre-to-the-Home/Building (FTTH/FTTB) and hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) is the main broadband connection technologies used in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the world leaders in developing FTTB/FTTH. Also, Microwave trunk transmission system is still keeping for the remote area in Hong Kong. One of the main network operators, I-Cable using HFC to provide network to over 2 million families in Hong Kong.

The average internet speed in Hong Kong is mostly over 120 Mbps. For the uploading speed is 146.69Mbps and for the downloading speed is 153.66 Mbps. The speed can be faster depending on the internet plan the users have, some of the plans can up to 1000Mbps in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has very high average fixed broadband speed over the world. Hong Kong ranks 2 in the world average speed of fixed broadband, with 164.88Mbps. Singapore ranks 1 with 200.12 Mbps, according to Speedtest Global Index.

A 97% of the internet user in Hong Kong will use their smartphone to surf internet. Most of the people will spend around 3 hours on the internet per day. Recent year, Hong Kong people prefer going online through mobile phone rather than computer. 97% of the users use mobile phone going online. The time Hong Kong people spend on internet is gradually growing. Especially for mobile phone, people averagely going online for 2.7 hours per day in 2016 and increase to 3.1 hours per day in 2017. Using mobile phone to go online is more common than using computer in Hong Kong because mobile phone is convenient and people can go online anytime they want. Internet becomes so important in people’s lives, the students will use them for studying, yet this also raises another problem like internet addiction. However, the study found that the prevalence rate of adolescent internet addiction was 6.7%, which is lower than the previously reported. We think that the situation will be better under the education by the school and government.

The growth of the internet also leads to the flourishing development of e-commerce. In 2014, 60% of Hong Kong people will shop online. Online shopping websites like TaoBao, HKTV Mall and amazon is common for Hong Kong people. As most of the Hong Kong people are busy with their own life, with the development of the e-commerce, they can get all the necessaries and ingredients through online markets like HKTV Mall. This greatly facilitates people's lives.

Internet is becoming a must for everyone in the world. The global exchange becomes so easy because of the development of internet. We believe that in the future, internet will keep changing our life, people will start to rely more on e-commerce. In the growth of 4K, the requirement for faster internet speed will increase, people will keep asking for better internet quality and speed. Therefore, competition between different service providers will increase. The internet and VPN played an important role even during the protest in Hong Kong. Hong Kong people use internet to live stream the protest in Instagram, some will share the live location of the police through Telegram to protect other protesters. They also use internet to organize and gather people to join the protest. Therefore, we believe the internet will become more and more important in the future.

We analyze international broadband and HbbTV evolution (here, the case of Hong Kong) in this blog, in Research Group about Digital Journalism and Marketing and Broadband and in Research Group on Innovative Monetization Systems of Digital Journalism, Marketing and Tourism (SIMPED), from CECABLE,  Escola Universitària Mediterrani of UdG, UPF and Blanquerna-URL, in Twitter (@CECABLEresearch), in the group of LinkedIn, in the page of LinkedIn, in the group of Facebook, in Instagram (CECABLE), in Pinterest and in this blog. We will go in deep in the XXV Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress.