JULY 6, 2010 - Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited (HKBN), a wholly-owned subsidiary of City Telecom (H.K.) Limited, has launched a symmetric 1-Gbps broadband services offering powered by Alcatel-Lucent’s gigabit passive optical network (GPON) system.
The offer, at $26 US/month, targets Hong Kong’s residential market. Demand for bandwidth in Hong Kong is growing at an exponential rate, driven by the popularity of cloud computing applications and high-definition, interactive multimedia services, such as HD IPTV and online gaming. According to the latest figures from the Office of the Telecommunications Authority in Hong Kong, residential broadband penetration in Hong Kong has reached 81.4%.
“In response to the growing need for bandwidth, we have been working with Alcatel-Lucent for years now, leveraging their fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) expertise to deploy a world-class broadband network,” says Ivan Tam, chief technology officer of HKBN. “Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON enables us to offer affordable broadband services on a mass-market scale, while readying our network for future demands -- driven by super high-definition and 3D interactive multimedia applications.”
HKBN is the first broadband service provider in Hong Kong to provide symmetric 100-Mbps and 1-Gbps broadband services to Hong Kong’s residential broadband users.
Alcatel-Lucent has deployed its 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-User (ISAM FTTU) system. Leveraging Alcatel-Lucent’s High Leverage Network (HLN) architecture, the platform enables the delivery of high-speed broadband multimedia services to mass markets, such as high-speed data, IPTV, VoIP, and content on demand.