Mandarin Communications, a Hong Kong wireless operator, launched its new personal communications services offering, touted as the region’s cheapest, featuring an $88 flat monthly charge for unlimited airtime.
The company is the first of Hong Kong’s eight mobile operators to offer such an unlimited deal. The next nearest example is People’s Telephone, which charges a flat rate of $1 a minute with no monthly fee. The company said the idea is to attract first-time wireless customers.
“This is an offer that everyone can afford to try,” said Craig Ehrlich, managing director for Mandarin.
The launch brings to three the number of PCS providers actually offering commercial service, including New World PCS, People’s Telephone and now Mandarin. The other three, Hutchison Telephone, Pacific Link Communications and P-Plus Communications, have only conducted soft launches and are working to improve coverage before extending service commercially.
Ehrlich said Mandarin will spend $2 billion on its network and said with 400 base stations, it currently has more cell cites that any of the other PCS operators.
Analysts have deemed Honk Kong to be one of the most competitive and dynamic PCS markets in the world, but doubt the area will be able to support six players in addition to the existing cellular and digital cellular carriers.
“It sounds awfully wasteful, in terms of bandwidth and equipment, to have six different carriers operating six different services,” said Paul Judge, director of the Seattle, Wash.-based telecom consulting firm The Walter Group.
Kari Roe, managing editor of International Technology Consultant’s “Telecom Market Report: China, India and the Pacific Rim,” also believes the market is too small, a scenario that she said likely will lead to some consolidation in the future. “I think some of those PCS companies operating in Hong Kong believe it will be a doorway to operating in China, and I think that’s a tricky proposition to base a business on.”
She said it was “interesting” that the two PCS operators who do not also operate a cellular wireless network are offering the most competitive deals.
Hutchison and Pacific Link both operate other networks, but have yet to commercially launch PCS service.
