|
|
Possibility of Higher Fees for LTE Services on Hong Kong's Underground Railway
Published on:
Hong Kong's public transit service, the MTR is reported to be considering raising the fees it charges mobile network operators for access to its site for underground phone coverage. The fee hike has raised concerns that the networks may delay planned LTE coverage underground.
A source close to the talks told the South China Morning Post that: "Telecommunications network operators pay hundreds of millions of dollars worth of charges annually to the MTR for providing their services on its railway lines."
Without elaborating, the person familiar with the talks said: "The MTR may charge even more for [firms to provide] 4G service."
The networks pay around HK$25 million per year to provide mobile phone coverage along the public transport service, and they pass part of that cost onto the customers through a HK$12 per month surcharge for underground service.
The MTR saw its revenues fall earlier this year and is thought to be looking at the mobile access fee rise to stem the reductions.
MTR chief executive Jay Walder told the SCMP: "In order to meet increasing mobile data demand, we facilitated telecoms operators to increase 3G data capacity and signal reception, as well as conducting a technical trial for 4G."
The MTR started offering underground 3G coverage in 2005 after it awarded a two-year contract to Andrew Corp to deploy the network infrastructure.
On the web: South China Morning Post
Tags: [mtr] [lte] [underground] [Hong Kong]
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |