The Office of the Communications Authority (“OFCA”) today (5 April 2013) announced the extension of the voluntary registration scheme for buildings with optical fibre access networks (“the Scheme”) to cover also non-residential buildings in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong has one of the most advanced communications network infrastructure in the world. According to the findings of a study published by the Fibre-to-the-Home (“FTTH”) Council in February 2013, with a household penetration of 55%, Hong Kong comes third in the global ranking table in deploying optical fibre access network,” a spokesperson of OFCA said.
“With a view to promoting the deployment of fixed broadband infrastructure in Hong Kong and to raise the public awareness about the advantages of optical fibre access networks, we launched the Scheme in November 2010, covering initially residential buildings only. The Scheme now registers over 13,500 residential buildings, representing about 2.2 million households or 84% of the total number of households in Hong Kong. Over 80% of these buildings belong to the FTTH category,” the spokesperson of OFCA added. “With the extension of the Scheme to cover non-residential buildings, the Scheme registers over 1,500 non-residential buildings, representing 18% of all the non-residential buildings in the territory.”
To promote the public awareness of the Scheme, OFCA has designed the Fibre-to-the-Building (“FTTB”) and FTTH labels. The building management offices, the incorporated owners or owners of buildings (“IO/BMO”) of registered buildings are encouraged to display the appropriate label at prominent locations of buildings to signify their status of optical fibre access networks. The FTTB label indicates that optical fibre is installed within the boundary of a building, whereas the FTTH label indicates that a building is installed with optical fibre and is ready to be connected to serve individual subscriber’s premises.
“It is imperative that IO/BMO and the property developers of non-residential buildings recognise the importance of high-speed broadband service to their occupants, which has fast become a basic service requirement for the business sector. We wish to encourage them to meet such a need by retrofitting existing buildings with, and to give due priority in new developments to the provision of, the optical fibre access network,” the spokesperson said.
To promote awareness of the Scheme, OFCA has held 19 briefing sessions for IO/BMO and other interested parties since November 2010. OFCA will continue to conduct public education programmes in relation to the Scheme. Meanwhile, members of the public may check the fibre access status of a particular building from the Scheme’s website (http://app1.ofca.gov.hk/apps/ubs/index.asp?lang=en) or by calling the hotline of OFCA (8102 4100) during office hours (8:30 – 17:45).
Background
Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited, New World Telecommunications Limited and Towngas Telecommunications Fixed Network Limited take part in the extended Scheme. Apart from the records filed by these three operators, which cover both their FTTH/FTTB residential and non-residential buildings, the register also includes records of the FTTH/FTTB residential buildings filed by Hong Kong Cable Television Limited, Hutchison Global Communications Limited, PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited and Wharf T&T Limited.
The report published by the FTTH Council is available at: http://www.ftthcouncil.eu/documents/Presentations/20130220PressConfLondon_Online.pdf
Office of the Communications Authority
5 April 2013