Hong Kong, 1 December 2002 -- Hutchison Global Communications (HGC), a major fixed network operator in Hong Kong and one of the exhibitors at ITU Telecom Asia 2002, puts on display a number of the company's newest video-based applications. Senior executives capitalise on the occasion by enlightening the world their expansion plans and strategies to be employed next year. Focuses will be put on market expansion as well as product development.
The market demand for voice, video and bandwidth services has always been growing. HGC will usher the industry into a new revolutionary era by introducing a series of multimedia voice and video communications services. These initiatives include Video Telephony, Video Mail, Share-eSee (a multi-party collaborative conferencing service designed for academia deployment) and e-Profile (an online biography application).
Video Telephony is an advanced communications tool integrating voice and video services. Utilising HGC's symmetrical broadband services, it simulates normal telephony interface and provides local and overseas online users with instant audio and visual transmission capabilities. Video Mail is another application designed to support traditional email and video clips functions. Share-eSee features a multi-party video conferencing function supplemented by document sharing functionality. It facilitates online learning and group discussions between students and teachers. This service is expected to be extended by degrees to the business community in the future. e-Profile represents an online personal data warehouse which is a one-stop solution that helps capture children's development progress throughout different growth stages.
These services, when launched, will target primarily the public and domestic users. Their versatile and multi-functional nature will enable HGC to extend the services to different sectors and business markets in the future. On top of that, HGC will modify the application content to suit different industry needs such as legal and architectural firms.
Since late last year, HGC has embarked on the attempt to expand its service portfolio by stretching its customer base to include some specific sectors, including educational institutions and social community. Exploiting the schools' demand for interactive learning, HGC debuted the introduction of optic fibre broadband technology to local academia by offering exclusive 10M/100M upload and download broadband services. By now, it is reported that 50% of the primary and secondary schools in the SAR employ their services which lays a solid foundation for the betterment of local education.
In addition to network infrastructure and broadband provision, HGC has started to pursue the development of a suite of schooling and learning applications, such as Share-eSee and e-Profile which are being deployed by many schools. Share-eSee allows teachers and students to conduct group and project discussions, oral practices and tutoring. It also offers them with computer aids services. e-Profile, by ways of video recording and image capturing, recounts children's development progress spanning homework, projects, classroom performance, special interests and talents, to limbs and body motion for parental use and teaching purposes in the future. Interesting school stories and travel logs can also be shared online to further realise the application of information and technology on teaching and learning.
To complement the product and customer diversification, HGC will actively extend their businesses to overseas markets. An international business division was set up this July to accomplish the market diversification task. With an intention to penetrate the global market, HGC will by step establish offices in China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea. By entering into bilateral agreements with major domestic players, HGC will focus on the wholesale business including international bandwidth wholesaling, international voice services, IP Transit, IP-VPN and other value-added services. Against this backdrop, the customer target will be widened to cover business and corporate user groups.
Following the completion of international network access for the Ministry of University Affair of Thailand in November, HGC is due to introduce the Hong Kong-Philippines Video Telephony services, which symbolises their pioneering business launched for overseas markets within this month. A pilot point will be established at the Worldwide House in Central to allow the Hong Kong-resided Filipinos to conduct instant voice and image communications with families at home.
Mr Peter Wong, HGC's Chief Executive Officer, said, "Our development plan follows an all-encompassing yet multi-bearing strategy. We are dedicated to achieving a balanced growth in the areas of product and customer expansion as well as geographical presence. The technology advancement leads to an ever-increasing demand for communications solutions around the globe. Pure voice-based communications models are inadequate to quench customers' thirst. Moreover, the revolutionary growth of the Internet in recent years has led to an upsurge of multimedia voice and video communications services. It is our belief that solutions which support simultaneous voice and image transmission are going to drive the market. We therefore are committed to introducing by phases different novel services that meet different sectors' demand and requirements." He concluded, "HGC has laid a solid foundation for its fixed-line business. The ample resources and infrastructure support we possess facilitate our expansion into Asia Pacific and the global marketplace."
For media enquiries, please contact:
Ms Sally Tsang, Senior Manager, Public Relations
Tel: 2128-6708 Fax: 2187-2055 email: pr@hgc.com.hk
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