PCCW’s lead in Hong Kong’s broadband market is under pressure, as rivals launch aggressive discounts for high-speed internet.
Hutchison has fired the latest salvo in the battle for subscribers, with its mobile arm 3 offering fixed-mobile services under the new brand “3ree Broadband.”
Under the tie-up, 3 is now marketing the residential fixed line services of its sister firm Hutchison Global Communications.
“The service, comprising residential broadband, residential telephone line and IDD 0080, has been integrated with 3 Hong Kong’s mobile and Wi-Fi wireless Internet access services,” said 3.
To begin with, 3 is offering a 100Mbps residential fiber service for HK$99 ($12.75) per month.
New subscribers can get the 100Mbps fiber service for free for six months or 30 months of free fixed line telephony.
Subscribers can also receive 3’s Home Wi-Fi service and Outdoor Wi-Fi services for free.
Two weeks ago Hong Kong Broadband Network began a free six-month promotion for 100Mbps fiber customers who switch over from PCCW’s DSL service.
The promotion is available to customers that take a HK$99/month contract over 30 months.
“Given a matured Hong Kong broadband market place with household broadband penetration of 82%, the majority of HKBN’s growth is coming from existing users from other operators,” said the firm.
“We found that once a new user has experienced our symmetric 100Mbps service, the churn rate is extremely low - below 1.0% per month.”
HKBN last year took 90% of Hong Kong’s broadband subs growth, overtaking cable operator iCable to become the city’s second largest ISP. It says it is on track to overtake PCCW before 2016.
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