Wireless personal communications in Hong Kong: a university perspective

The position of Hong Kong as a financial and commercial center of southeast Asia depends critically on telecommunications. A well-developed telecommunication infrastructure is in place providing high-quality services for both wireline and wireless communications. Hong Kong's application of wireless communicators is among the most active in the world. This has been encouraged by several factors, including the inconvenience of face-to-face communications for people on the move in a densely populated city, the relatively low cost of using wireless communications, the proactive attitude of regulators to adopting new technologies, a population that is not afraid of using new technologies to gain convenience, and strong competition among service providers. The Hong Kong Office of the Telecommunications Authority has awarded licenses for the new PCS-related services, and the government is also increasing funding support for research activities. In this article, the authors first outline Hong Kong's current regulatory and service status in wireless communications and the plan for opening up new PCS. The rest of the article focuses on the research effort in a new university, including development of receivers.