Hong Kong's HKT released their interim results in Hong Kong on Wednesday and reported a 5% decrease in total revenue. The dip was caused by “lower revenue from mobile handset sales in the absence of marquee handsets during the period,” said HKT in a statement.
However the lack of such handsets—typified by Apple's latest release, currently expected to be announced in September of this year—didn't hurt HKT's total EBITDA, which increased by 2% to US$774 million (HK$5,968 million), said the firm. Excluding handset sales, total revenue was virtually unchanged for the corresponding period last year, said HKT, who described the results as “satisfactory.”
The Hong Kong-based telco has been busy leveraging their infrastructure to enhance existing lines of business and move into new areas. “With the advent of more and more bandwidth heavy applications, we launched in July this year the 4x1000M Multi-Use Broadband Service to further enhance our broadband business,” said Alex Arena, group managing director, HKT—the new service offers four discrete broadband connections at a nominal 1Gbps.
“On the mobile front, the upgrade to 1Gbps speed which is being introduced progressively at selected high traffic locations is a solid step forward to 5G,” said Arena in the statement.
Arena added that HKT will continue its efforts in the development of new initiatives such as Smart Charge electric vehicle charging, and Tap & Go mobile payment services. “HKT will continue to enhance the features of Tap & Go and make it the most convenient platform in Hong Kong,” said the firm in a statement.
Mobile payment services are gaining traction in Hong Kong but face stiff competition from the HKSAR's Octopus Card, introduced in 1997 as a public transport payment card but now heavily penetrated into the retail space.
NOTE: This story replaces an earlier version of a story on HKT's results.