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Media and Communications

Fixed Communications

As at December, local fixed telecommunications services were offered by 27 licensed carriers, with two or more networks available to 90.7 per cent of households and three or more available to 79.9 per cent.

Hong Kong has one of the world's most advanced fixed broadband network infrastructures and a fixed broadband penetration rate of 94.9 per cent of households. The Institute for Management Development's World Competitiveness Yearbook 2020 ranked Hong Kong sixth in the average internet bandwidth speed out of 63 economies.

Charges for fixed broadband are competitive, starting from $106 per month for services at speeds of up to 1 Gbps. The city is also at the forefront of providing public Wi-Fi, with more than 70,000 Wi-Fi hot spots.

External Telecommunications

Forty-two operators are licensed to provide facility-based external telecommunications services. Hong Kong is connected with the Mainland through 20 overland cables and with the rest of the world through 11 regional and transcontinental submarine cable systems set up at eight submarine cable landing stations. The total equipped capacity of the external telecommunications facilities in December exceeded 122,226 Gbps.

Two Hong Kong companies are licensed to operate and provide satellite communications services, operating 10 satellites in total.

Unsolicited Electronic Messages

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance regulates the sending of commercial electronic messages, including faxes, pre-recorded telephone messages, short messages and emails. As at year end, more than 2.6 million numbers were registered in 'Do-not-call' registers established under the ordinance for faxes, short messages and pre-recorded telephone messages.

In 2020, the CA received 556 reports of suspected contraventions and issued 20 warning letters to senders.

Protection of Consumers

The OFCA works closely with the industry to safeguard consumer interests in using telecommunications services and to resolve any systemic problems identified in consumer complaints.

The industry operates a voluntary Customer Complaint Settlement Scheme, with funding and administrative support from the OFCA, that mediates unresolved billing disputes between service providers and their customers. During the year, 29 eligible applications were handled, all of which were settled.

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