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Hong Kong's biggest telco admits it is worried about growth constraints in the small market.

"It's a valid concern," PCCW group managing director Alex Arena told BBWF Asia in a keynote address Tuesday. 

"It's a fact of life that with a small population and high penetration [in Hong Kong] "&brkbar; it would be a real challenge to grow the revenue base and the ARPU.

"We have thought about this a lot and it's helped to drive the entire strategy."

The operator believes it had found the answer by focusing on share of household spending. 

The question was "how to expand what people are prepared to pay for services, how do we make money out of it, and how do we grow our business‾," Arena said.

"What we concentrate on is total household spend: share of the wallet, not narrowly-defined ARPUs. This is how we look at our new service. Are they raising and growing share of the customer wallet‾"

PCCW's quad-play formula offers fixed-line, broadband, TV and mobile services, opening up new revenue streams by upselling and cross-selling new services to customers, Arena said.

It was also enjoying economies of scale of operations and content acquisition.

Arena said that while many viewed telcos unable to grow any further, PCCW last year grew its core telecom business by 12% and Ebitda result by 11%.

"We have returned to growth and we hope to stay that way."