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SmarTone Mobile Communications is a mobile phone operator in Hong Kong, and partly owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties. SmarTone was launched by Sun Hung Kai Properties and ABC Communications in 1992.
- 5G data traffic originating from indoors is set to expand amid the wide use of work-from-home technologies and the digital transformation of industries
- Many target 5G use cases, such as industrial automation, utilities, transport, retail, remote health care and smart office, will be deployed inside buildings
Industry observers say although safety awareness levels are improving at construction sites, a lot more can be done to reduce accidents further.
Hong Kong's communications watchdog has told telecoms operator SmarTone to submit a report after an outage on Thursday left many of its subscribers disconnected.
Hong Kong's incumbent mobile network operators could see improved financial performance next year, after the government concluded its much-anticipated public auction of radio spectrum on Monday.
SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings, which has warned investors about a drop in net profit for the year to June, is likely to find its prospects turning brighter during this financial year after a lacklustre period in the mobile market.
SmarTone Telecommunications, which saw its net profit fall in the six months to December, expects growth prospects to remain tough as the Hong Kong market awaits the 3G spectrum auction later this year and the release of a new smartphone that could boost consumer spending.
SmarTone Telecommunications saw its shares drop 15 per cent in Hong Kong trading yesterday after announcing a cut in its payout ratio on Wednesday, citing the need to invest in its network to meet consumers' growing data demands.
SmarTone Telecommunications has lowered its payout ratio to 60 per cent from 100 per cent, saying the move was prompted by the need to invest large sums in its networks to meet consumers' growing demand for mobile data and the government's 3G spectrum renewal policy.
With the launch of its 4G network in August last year, SmarTone Telecommunications predicted a big shift in subscriber traffic to its new high-speed mobile service.
The Hong Kong government has failed to appraise fully the negative impact that its plan to reassign 3G spectrum in use and impose a significant increase in license fees would have on mobile services, say local network firms.
Mobile network operator SmarTone Telecommunications has completed a US$200 million bond offering that will help finance the company's bid to renew its 3G spectrum licence in 2016.
SmarTone Telecommunications, CSL, Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong and PCCW's HKT are to be invited by the legislative body's panel on information technology and broadcasting to discuss the issue on March 27, according to a Legco document.
The government, represented by the Communications Authority, is expected to decide on that plan in October, which would be exactly three years before the 3G spectrum licences of CSL, SmarTone Telecommunications, Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong and PCCW's HKT are due to expire.
