Telstra Starts High-Speed Mobile Service in Hong Kong

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Telstra Corp. s Hong Kong mobile- phone unit started a fourth-generation network in the city to meet demand for high-speed wireless services and lift revenue.

The network, based on LTE, or Long Term Evolution, technology now covers 50 percent of the city s population, Joseph O Konek, chief executive officer at Telstra s CSL Ltd. unit, said at a briefing today.

CSL aims to offer 4G services in Hong Kong ahead of rivals including billionaire Li Ka-shing s Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Ltd. Mobile-phone carriers including the U.S. s Verizon Wireless and Japan s NTT DoCoMo Inc. have already unveiled plans to start the high-speed networks in their home markets.

Hutchison Telecommunications 2.99 million mobile-phone users in Hong Kong at the end of June makes it the city s biggest carrier by subscribers, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. analyst Lisa Soh. CSL had 2.64 million at the end of June, according to Melbourne-based Telstra.

CSL s new service uses technology supplied by ZTE Corp., China s second-biggest maker of phone-equipment.

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