There were almost 5,300 Wi-Fi hotspots for wireless web surfing provided by business operators in Hong Kong at the end of November, the Census & Statistics Department says, adding the number is on the rise.

In recent feature article Development of the Telecommunications Industry in Recent Years the department noted the Government will progressively install Wi-Fi facilities in 350 highly patronised government premises in different districts for free public Internet access.

The article also said in 2006 five wireline-based fixed-telephone network operators provided services to 3.8 million telephone lines. The telephone density was 56 exchange lines per 100 population. The year-on-year rise was 1.1% showing wireline telephone services are well developed and saturated.

For Internet service there were 181 licensed service providers in Hong Kong at the end of 2006. Of the 2.69 million customer accounts, 1.74 million or 65% registered broadband Internet access making Hong Kong's broadband penetration rate amongst the world's highest.

8-fold rise

The city also has one of the highest penetration rates of mobile phone services in the world. The number of subscribers reached 9.44 million at the end of 2006, about eight times the figure a decade earlier, and an average of 137 public mobile phone subscribers per 100 population. Of them 1.33 million were 3G service customers.

The number of various kinds of short messages sent and received also hit 2.7 billion and 3.9 billion.

To serve the large base of clients 4,700 staff were engaged with the total compensation reaching $1.4 billion.

Resulting from the rising popularity of mobile phone services, radio paging service establishments experienced a persistent fall from 1996 to 2006, with the number of radio paging receivers dropping from 1.09 million to 123,000.

The article was published in the third quarter 2007 issue of the Quarterly Supplement to Statistical Digest of the Services Sector. The publication also provides updated figures on Hong Kong's 14 major service industries and another feature Foreign Affiliates Trade in Services Statistics for Hong Kong. Download it here or call 2123 1038 for enquiries.