[TYPE THE COMPANY NAME]

New Technologies, New Markets

THE LAUNCH OF HONGKONG TELECOMS
VIDEO ON DEMAND

BY:
John Kenneth M. Masangkay

I.

Point of view

City Telecom (H.K.) Limited (CTI) was established in 1992. Ricky, the current
Chairman and Paul, the current Vice Chairman, were residing in Canada at that time.
From a service offered by Cable and Wireless in Canada, the two hatched the idea of a
call-back service since deregulation in the telecommunications sector occurred in
different stages around the world and Canada opened its telecommunications sector
well before Hong Kong. As a result, a call from Canada to Hong Kong (in-bound call to
Hong Kong) was much cheaper than a call from Hong Kong to Canada (out-bound call
from Hong Kong). 1
II.

Definition of Problems

The two returned to Hong Kong and put their entire CAD $100,000 savings into the
new start-up. More than 3,000 customers signed up the first day, quickly returning their
initial investments. Over time, Paul and Ricky kept improving the quality of their
services, despite their customers not really concerned about quality. By 1995, the
company had upgraded their ISDN lines for their call back operation, providing fast and
reliable services which were virtually indistinguishable from that provided by the
incumbent monopoly Hong Kong Telecom (HKT). HKT complained to the Office of
Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) that CTIs operation was illegal. OFTA, however,
ruled that CTIs operation was legal.
III.

Statements of objectives

Communication across Network

How to transmit complex data structures across the Internet?
Scale
Scaling from initially several hundred to currently 90,000 users
Security

 Secure Payment
Authentication

IV.

Areas of Consideration

Distributed:
Video clients need to download/show video on
customers Web-TV
Multiple servers needs to be operated by
Hongkong Telecom:
n Object Technology:
Video clients are written in Java:
Web-TV has Java Virtual Machine
portability to e.g. Sony Playstation, Sega-Console...
Video servers are written in C++:
high performance
V.

Alternative Courses of Action

Time to market
Development of new applications with recent
technology
Integration of new applications increasingly
difficult
Scalability
Management of 30,000,000 accounts
Management of 10,000,000 customers
Use by 2,000 concurrent users
Reliability
VI.

Recommendation

Manpower Survey of the IT Sector

The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) also conducts the Manpower Survey of
the IT Sector on behalf of the Vocational Training Council (VTC).9 The Committee on
Information Technology Training and Development of the Vocational Training Council
(VTC) is the agency responsible for the assessment of manpower and training needs in
the information technology sector in Hong Kong. Its duties includes the recommendation
of measures needed for the development of employers

VII.

Plan of Action

Distributed:
Video clients need to download/show video on customers Web-TV
Multiple servers needs to be operated by
Hongkong Telecom:
Object Technology:
Video clients are written in Java:
Web-TV has Java Virtual Machine
portability to e.g. Sony Playstation, Sega-Console...
Video servers are written in C++:
high performance
VIII.

Potential Problem Analysis

Aside from its website, C&SD disseminates the data it collects through printed
publications, available both in paper copy and by electronic download (pdf).2 At the
same time C&SD has published annually the Hong Kong as an Information Society
report since 2002. The publication presents a compilation of statistical information
coming from a variety of sources relevant to the development of the information society.
Information from the two ICT surveys conducted by C&SD (the household and business
survey on IT usage and penetration) are included in the report. Besides covering the
usage and penetration
of IT both in the business sector and in households, it shows developments in
telecommunications services, analyses the demand for manpower in the IT&T sector,
and highlights developments in relevant educational programmes.

IX.

Fallback Anaysis

Hong Kongs success in the collection, dissemination and use of Information and
Communication
Technology (ICT) statistics makes it a good case study. A number of useful experiences
that can help other countries improve their ICT data collection and dissemination
practices need to be highlighted:
1) The legal basis for data collection and dissemination plays a major role in the
production
of timely and reliable statistics.
2) Coordination and cooperation among different ICT players is important to ensure
non-duplication of efforts and maximum utilization of available resources.
3) There have been efforts to produce model surveys for data collection on business,
individual and household use of ICTs to enhance comparability
of data collected and to reduce costs. The Partnership on Measuring ICT for
Development has developed a core list of ICT indicators, and will provide a model
questionnaire and survey methodology, which countries should use.
4) Timeliness, comparability, and accuracy of data are important to optimize the
usefulness of information for policy input.
5) Data collection should be driven by policy needs. Policy-makers have to recognize
the importance of reliable and up-to-date statistics to formulate policies and inform the
public about developments in the ICT arena.