Hutchison 3G Hong Kong, a wireless service under the Hong Kong-based conglomerate, Hutchison Whampoa Group, said that it would launch the 3G service by January 2004, following delays, reported the NE Asia Online, a Japanese news Web site.
In Asia, only Japan and Korea offer commercial 3G services currently. Hutchison has 3G services in Britain, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Australia, with 660,000 3G subscribers worldwide, most of them in Britain and Italy.
The service will be matched to Japanese electronics giant NEC's 'c616' cellphone, a W-CDMA handset. NEC has agreed to deliver a million handsets to the Hutchison Whampoa Group for global distribution by the end of 2003, with another 1.5 million in the first quarter of 2004. Hutchison has had trouble meeting demand, and has been forced to delay subscriber and profit targets.
The delays in the 3G network launch have led to steeper prices, with the c616 cellphones retailing at a hefty $564 (£320), discounted to $512 each. The cellphones will come with three basic service plans from $34, $36 and $67. In other markets, 3G handsets are typically sold with generous discounts to entice new customers, but an analyst interviewed by Bloomberg News, an international newswire, said that Hutchison would be unable to match those discounts in Hong Kong, given the financial pressure to make up for the delays.
NEC said that the c1616 cellphone shipments would be completed within two weeks, and Hutchinson Whampoa Group's managing director, Canning Fok, said that the c616 cellphones would appear in Hong Kong shops in early January, but refused to say exactly when the service would begin operations. He also refused to say how many new subscribers Hutchison hoped to gain, or the impact the 3G service would have on existing mobile services.
Video and roaming
Several services will be offered initially. One, the "3 Hong Kong" service will have a push-type information service called "3 Daily express" with 13 timed deliveries of news, weather, traffic and financial reports in video mails. Hutchinson will also have a pull-type information service similar to Japan's NTT DoCoMo i-mode service.
3G subscribers will be able to access video content as well as image and music GSM services. Besides music videos, movie previews and sports news, a Web cam service will be offered where subscribers can link to a monitor camera installed at their homes.
The services will include international roaming where the Hutchison Whampoa Group works, presently including Britain, Italy and Australia. International roaming will include video transmission from both sides.
While international roaming between Japan and Hong Kong is not currently available, NTT DoCoMo which has a 24 percent stake in Hutchison 3G Hong Kong is planning to make its 3G FOMA network compatible with the W-CDMA standard used by Hutchison, said the NE Asia Online. Video calls between the two networks are already available.
