Hong Kong: Report Finds 40% Of Home Internet Users Now Connect Via Broadband

by Mary Swire, Tax-news.com, Hong Kong

30 April 2001

According to a report published last week by Internet measurement company iamasia, high-speed cable or DSL Internet access now accounts for just over 40 per cent of home Internet connections in Hong Kong. By the end of March 2001, 40.2 per cent of the SAR's home Internet users, or around 800,000 people, logged on via a broadband connection.

Iamasia reported that home broadband penetration in Hong Kong has grown more than five-fold since March 2000, when just 7 per cent of home Internet users were broadband-connected. By October 2000, that figure had grown to 28 per cent due to growing competition in the broadband ISP market, falling access fees and greater consumer awareness of the benefits of high-speed Internet connections. Broadband users also spent more time online and viewed more web pages on average during March 2001 - 21 hours 8 minutes and 1,643 pages respectively, versus 14 hours 46 minutes and 1,241 pages for narrowband users.

An increasingly number of consumer ISPs have begun to offer broadband in Hong Kong within the last few months, which has led to an extended period of aggressive competition. We reported just last week that another new major player had entered the fray in the shape of China Light & Power's Oxygen.

Iamasia predicted that if this rate of growth is sustained in Hong Kong, an even greater number of Internet users - possibly more than 50 per cent - will access via high-speed services than via regular dial-up by the third quarter of 2001.

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