Publications and Press Releases - Speeches and Presentations

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Speech by Mr. Stephen Mak, Acting Government Chief Information Officer, at the Mobile Vision 2009 Conference
14 April 2009

John (CHIU), Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning! For our overseas participants, a warm welcome to Hong Kong!

Mobile computing has been changing our lifestyles in the last 20 years. From the first faltering steps in using SMS in the early Nineties, to the now mature 3G technology as a means to provide information, education and entertainment, mobile has always promised a great deal. Hong Kong’s mobile industry has been a frontier in the Asia Pacific region, even in this economic downturn. We are well known for having a liberal, open and competitive wireless telecommunication market with low entry barriers.

Riding on technological convergence and the rapid developments in our wireless/mobile telecommunications infrastructure, Hong Kong has the prospect of becoming a "Wireless City" where people can have ubiquitous access to information and services that they need in an efficient and convenient manner. Our latest information showed that mobile data usage for January this year was 4 times that of the same period last year, and even 14 times of the year before.

Our other wireless profile figures are impressive: we have 7,900 Wi-Fi hotspots covering 4,700 locations, making us one of the world leading cities in the provision of public Wi-Fi services. The GovWiFi programme, expected to be fully operational by mid-2009, will provide around 2 000 Wi-Fi hotspots at some 350 government premises, offering access in all public libraries, job centres, key cultural and recreational centres, community centres, large parks and major government offices. In response to demand, we are considering a slight extension to the number of premises.

Our strength also lies in our role as an international hub with international language and horizon where users are prone to adopt new applications. To facilitate the adoption of emerging new technologies, the Government has announced the implementation framework for the development of mobile television (TV) services in Hong Kong in December 2008. The framework is the first step of launching mobile television in the territories. It will facilitate point-to-multi-point broadcast-type mobile TV services, which can deliver audio-visual contents to the mobile device.

Also, the framework provides a new opportunity for network carriers to provide new digital contents to the public. With mobile subscriber penetration rate standing as high as over 160% as of December 2008, virtually all members of public can subscribe to mobile TV services if they so wish.

The framework aims to create an enabling environment that promotes innovation, investment and competition of local mobile TV services for the benefit of consumers. The relevant frequency spectrum will be auctioned later this year. All cellular mobile operators in Hong Kong are welcome to offer mobile TV services. We hope that the services can be launched in 2010.

We notice that our neighbouring regions have targeted to promote the development of wireless broadband infrastructure at the metropolitan level. For example, I understand that the M-Taiwan program to build a WiMAX industry eco-system from service to core technologies will be completed sometime this year. Shanghai will install full coverage of TD-SCDMA network in the whole of the Shanghai World Expo Park Area by 2010, and the coverage of TD-SCDMA network on the Mainland will extend to 38 cities by the middle of this year. No doubt our distinguished speakers will give us more about these initiatives later.

To maintain Hong Kong as one of the leading telecommunication cities in Asia, we will release the spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) services and we plan to auction the BWA spectrum in the first quarter of 2009. The public will soon have wider choices of innovative services, including mobile broadband network services, so that they may have access to the Internet and multimedia services at affordable prices any time, anywhere and while on the move. In fact, we had earlier in the year awarded the spectrum to three companies. Together with the existing 3G mobile and Wi-Fi services, we shall have one of the most modern systems in the region.

In addition to establishing the physical, institutional and legal infrastructure in Hong Kong, the availability of wireless applications, services, digital content and advanced wireless/mobile devices is critical to the development of a wireless city. Its successful implementation very much depends on the degree of integration between technology and consumers' products or services. Collaboration beyond the ICT industry is needed for ensuring success and for achieving even greater economic benefits.

To support innovations in technology and business models, the HKSAR Government has been providing funding and sponsorship to academia and industry organizations on research and development of wireless and mobile technology and solutions. For example, the Government has sponsored the HKWDC to establish the TD-SCDMA Infrastructure at Cyberport. This project helps the industry by providing the necessary technology and support infrastructure to facilitate the development of TD-SCDMA-based mobile content, application solutions and tools in Hong Kong for the local and Mainland markets as well as to bridge between TD-SCDMA and other technology platforms such as TD-LTE and other emerging 4G developments.

On the application front, the emergence of Web 2.0 has led to the evolution of online communities and new forms of applications, such as social networking, blogs, wikis and discussion forums. The Government will explore the wider application of the related technologies, especially in establishing channels for interaction with the public. The advent of Web 2.0 may also imply news form of services and user experience in the wireless and mobile world.

The trend toward mobility in enterprise systems and applications is irresistible and irreversible, driven both by competitive business advantages offered by mobile technologies and by end-user demand. At the same time, mobile applications or services attract new security threats against business-critical enterprise systems and sensitive data.

Security is sometimes cited as one of the main obstacles to the business adoption of mobile applications or services. Once the data moves beyond the boundary of the enterprise, security threats rise dramatically. For individuals, the mobile environment may permit privacy to be compromised in a number of ways.

The Government is committed to making Hong Kong a leading e-business community and digital city in the globally connected world. Development of secure mobile and wireless applications is essential to our growing e-business environment. When building our mobile and wireless products, let’s do not forget to include security as one of the mandatory requirements.

I am glad to see that, later today, there will be an expert from a security company to share with us their insights and vision. Together with other deliberations on different mobile topics by our distinguished speakers from the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, I believe we will have an informative and inspirational programme today.

Ladies and gentlemen, I should stop here as I'm sure you are eager to get on with the rich programme lined-up for you today. I would like to congratulate the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association and the Hong Kong Wireless Development Centre for their enthusiasm and dedication in organizing this meaningful event. To our overseas participants, I wish you a very enjoyable stay and will appreciate what Hong Kong has to offer.

Thank you.

- ENDS -

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