HONG KONG, 14 APRIL 2009 – Mobile data usage in Hong Kong surged to 147 terabytes (147,000 GB) as of January 2009, an average amount of 44 MB per 2.5G/3G mobile user for that particular month.
The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) yesterday published for the first time the statistics of local mobile data usage. The surge in mobile data usage in the city represents four times and 14 times the mobile data usage over the same period in 2008 and 2007 respectively.
“We are pleased to see the remarkable growth of mobile data usage, which indicates that members of the public are increasingly using the mobile service for transmission and reception of mobile data. This is consistent with the trend observed in other advanced economies and demonstrates that Hong Kong has matured as a leading wireless city in the region,” a spokesperson of OFTA said.
“We are truly appreciative of the investment that the mobile network operators have been putting in our infrastructure so that mobile services of higher speed and better quality are continually provided to the community. The strong growth of mobile data usage can also be attributed to the offer of competitive service packages by mobile network operators and the increasing popularity of a variety of smart phones available in the market,” the spokesperson said.
“With the growing importance of mobile broadband service for people in Hong Kong, OFTA has released the monthly mobile data statistics for public consumption with a view to further promoting the service,” said the spokesperson.
“Apart from mobile data usage, the number of 2.5-generation/third-generation mobile phone users has increased by 15 per cent on a year-on-year basis reaching 3.35 million in January 2009. The total number of mobile phone users is 11.43 million and this represents a penetration rate of more than 163 per cent,” the spokesperson said.
