PCCW abuses broadband monopoly
21 July 2013

As a PCCW broadband customer of over 10 years, my loyalty to them has not been reciprocated but further humiliated by an increase of service charge of over 100 per cent since the beginning of the year (from HK$190 to HK$398 monthly).

This is for just their 8MB speed service, which they have priced at the same rate as the optic fibre service.

They are using their monopolistic power as the sole internet provider of our housing estate to coerce us into signing up for their optic fibre service which they've already installed to our doorstep. On top of that, they demand an exorbitant, cut-throat installation charge. This is ludicrous and unethical.

If we have no legislation to tame the continuous ferocious appetite of rampant price increases, I believe it is the consumers like us who will suffer eventually.

Charles Chan, Kowloon Tong

Hongkongers enjoy world-class internet services at a fraction of the cost of other countries
Sunday, 28 July, 2013, 5:19am

refer to the letter by Charles Chan regarding HKT's broadband service ("PCCW abuses broadband monopoly", July 21).

As Asia's world city and a global financial centre, Hong Kong needs a world-class optical fibre broadband network to sustain its hard-earned position.

In many countries the requisite investment in this fibre network is provided or subsidised by the government, but this is not the case in Hong Kong. HKT funds every cent of it and it is a huge investment - in the order of HK$1 billion per year.

To recover our investments, and to cope with other rising costs, we must adjust prices accordingly; this is particularly necessary since, in the 10 years to 2012, the average price of our broadband service fell some 40 per cent in real terms.

In addition, as we upgrade our fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology, we cannot be expected to keep the ageing copper-based network in operation.

Indeed, as customers migrate to fibre, the costs of retaining obsolete network assets in operation for a smaller customer base increase dramatically, hence we also need to price the copper-based service higher.

Hong Kong was the world No1 for average peak internet connection speeds, according to Akamai Technologies' report for the fourth quarter of 2012.

This is attributable to the investments that the private sector has been making, and HKT intends to keep Hong Kong at the forefront by continuing to invest and increase broadband speeds and raise service quality.

While this has had an impact on consumer pricing, which has come off its historical lows as we sweated our ageing copper network, HKT welcomes customers to compare our pricing to those in other markets.

They will find that few consumers overseas even have FTTH available to them and those who do face much higher prices.

For instance, the average price for a residential fibre line in Singapore was about three times that of ours, and more than double in the US, according to independent research using 2012 data.

In terms of availability, the number of FTTH users in France is roughly the same as the number of HKT's FTTH customers - but France's population is nearly 10 times that of our city.

Hong Kong consumers are getting the benefit of the world's best technology and services - and at prices that are a fraction of those overseas - and that is because HKT is committed to investing in our future.

C. K. Chan, head of group communications, HKT

PCCW exploits DSL customers
on 29 July, C. K. Chan of PCCW said in your columns:

"In addition, as we upgrade our fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology, we cannot be expected to keep the ageing copper-based network in operation. Indeed, as customers migrate to fibre, the costs of retaining obsolete network assets in operation for a smaller customer base increase dramatically, hence we also need to price the copper-based service higher."

This is disingenuous in several ways. 1) the "ageing copper based network" is the same network that landline phones use. It must be maintained in any case until all phone services have been made purely digital, which is probably decades away. The copper is just the "last mile", the rest of the network is common to all media.
2) Regardless, what this means is that those customers who cannot "migrate to fibre" because NO ONE IS SUPPLYING IT WHERE THEY LIVE are subsidising fibre customers who are paying less for a much better service. We have no choice so we pay a premium price for a lousy service.

I'm now paying 50% more than last year for a DSL service that is slower than it was 10 years ago. However PCCW beancounters justify their practices, they create huge ill will and I will never use their services if I can find an alternative.

PCCW isn't alone in spurning inconvenient customers. Two years ago Hutchison laid a fibre network on Lamma Island, along all the main streets. Then nothing. Despite probably all DSL subscribers being eager to switch to fibre, it remains dark. After they've saturated the lucrative 4G market maybe HGC will consider allowing us home users to join their fibre network. Or maybe we should start breeding carrier pigeons.

Alan Sargent