According to new figures from Hong Kong’s telecoms regulator OFTA, the number of 3G mobile service users in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) reached more than 2.8 million at the end of 2008, up by 40% from around two million at the beginning of the year, and around 1.3 million at end-2006. OFTA’s figures show a corresponding drop in users of 2.5G mobile services, which it said numbered less than 100,000 at end-2008, down from 1.2 million at the end of 2005. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database notes that there are four players in Hong Kong’s UMTS-based 3G market, Hutchison Telephone Company (3), CSL New World Mobility, SmarTone-Vodafone and PCCW Mobile, with Hutchison leading the field by a clear margin with 1.34 million W-CDMA/HSPA subscribers at the end of December, up from 1.08 million at end-2007 (representing just under half of the company’s total customer base).
OFTA also reported a more than 15% rise in the SAR’s number of subscribers to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in 2008, which reached a total of 834,000 by end-December, up from 724,000 a year earlier.