Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

SmarTone

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Founded
  
1992

Number of employees
  
2,128

Headquarters
  
Hong Kong

Parent organization
  
Sun Hung Kai Properties

SmarTone wwwsmartonecomcommonlogostsvg

Type
  
Mobile telecommunication

Industry
  
Mobile broadband services and fixed fibre broadband services

Key people
  
Raymond KWOK Ping-luen, Chairman & Non-Executive DirectorAnna YIP, CEO & Executive Director

Website
  
Hong Kong: http://www.smartone.com　Macau: http://www.smartone.com/mo/

Stock price
  
0315 (HKG) HK$ 10.04 -0.16 (-1.57%)24 Mar, 4:09 PM GMT+8 - Disclaimer

CEO
  
Anna Yip (16 Jun 2016–), Douglas Li (Jul 2001–)

Profiles

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SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Limited (Chinese: 數碼通) (0315.HK) is a major telecommunications company, with operating subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Macau. SmarTone provides voice, multimedia and mobile broadband services through its territory-wide 4G and 3G networks, as well as fixed fibre broadband services for the consumer and corporate markets.

Contents

Company overview

The company is a mobile phone operator in Hong Kong. It provides service on GSM-900, GSM-1800, W-CDMA (on the 2100 MHz frequency) and LTE-2600 with the brand SmarTone.

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Limited SEHK: 0315. 67% of its stake is held by Sun Hung Kai Properties. SmarTone Mobile Communications Limited also holds 72% stake in SmarTone Macau. Anna Yip is the Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

SmarTone has 31 stores in Hong Kong, including 8 on the Hong Kong Island, 11 in Kowloon and 12 in the New Territories.

History

SmarTone was launched by Sun Hung Kai Properties and ABC Communications in 1992. It started operations in March 1993. It used to have another branding EXTRA for its GSM-1800-only packages obtained by the acquisition of P Plus Communications in March 1998. The brand EXTRA ended in 2002 and was merged into SmarTone’s dual-band network.

A new branding "SmarTone-Vodafone" was officially launched in April 2005, following a partnership agreement with Vodafone in December 2004. This brand name was used only in Hong Kong. SmarTone retained its original brand name in Macau.

On 19 September 2011, SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Limited announced that it would not renew its marketing co-operation with Vodafone and reverted its brand to SmarTone from December 2011.

2G

  • March 1993 – Launched Asia's first GSM mobile service
  • December 1993 – Launched Asia's first auto-GSM roaming service
  • December 2002 – Launched SmarTone iN! – Proprietary advanced multimedia services mobile portal for customers
  • August 2012 – Re-farmed the 2G 1800MHz frequency band for its 4G LTE network and put into use
  • September 2014 – Announced in the 2013/2014 Annual Results Announcement that it started to re-farm its 2G 900MHz spectrum for 4G LTE, to provide even better coverage. The re-farming targets to complete at the end of 2014

    • 3G

  • December 2004 – Launched 3G services
  • July 2007 – Became the first company in the world to enable customers to stream flash video when browsing on any 3G feature phone
  • April 2010 – Debut 28.8Mbit/s HSPA+ network
  • September 2001 – Successfully bid the 3G license in Hong Kong
  • March 2011 – Successfully won the auction for 850MHz frequency band for its 3G service

    • 4G

  • August 2012 – Launched its 4G service with 1800MHz spectrum, supporting all 4G smartphones available in Hong Kong. 1800MHz spectrum provides better indoor coverage than higher frequency spectrum
  • September 2012 – Became the only Hong Kong mobile operator approved by Apple to offer 4G on iPhone 5. SmarTone emphasized that “it is the only operator in HK offers 4G network on iPhone 5"
  • November 2012 – Extended 4G LTE coverage on all MTR Island Line stations and targets to offer 4G LTE coverage at all MTR stations and its connecting tunnels in early 2013
  • January 2013 – Provided 4G LTE network along the seven MTR lines (Island Line, Kwun Tong Line, Tsuen Wan Line, Tseng Kwan O Line, Tung Chung Line, Disney Line and the Airport Express). In the same year, it successfully bid for 2 x 10 MHz at the 2600MHz frequency band for its 4G network to expand its network capacity and offer higher speed
  • December 2013 – Extended its 4G coverage to KCR’s lines (East Rail Line, West Rail Line and Ma On Shan Line) and Lok Ma Chau Line
  • August 2014 – Launched VoLTE service but only supported selected smartphone models
  • September 2014 – Commenced the re-farming of 2G 900MHZ spectrum for its 4G LTE, to provide better indoor coverage. Target to complete the re-farming end of this year. SmarTone planned to meet the growing data demand with cell densification, small cell technologies, LTE-Advanced, as well as refarming
  • October 2016 – Extended 4G coverage to the new MTR Kwun Tong Line Extension, covering the new Whampoa and Ho Man Tin stations
  • December 2016 - Extended 4.5G coverage to the new South Island Line, including Ocean Park, Wong Chuk Hang, Lei Tung

    • and South Horizons stations and deployed additional 2100MHz spectrum to all MTR lines

    5G

  • November 2016 – Partnered with Ericsson for a five-year partnership toward 5G, commencing early trials and pilot deployments of key pre-5G technologies to take place in Q4 2016

    • 2G

  • July 2001 – Launched GSM mobile service in Macau

    • 3G

  • July 2010 – Launched 3G service in Macau

    • 4G

  • November 2015 – Launched 4G service in Macau

    • Awards

  • Most Popular TV Commercial Awards Highest Distinction Award (1997)
  • Hong Kong Retail Management Association Special Award – Best Team Performance (2003 -2004)
  • Next Magazine Top Service Award - Mobile Network Service Operators Category (2003-2009 & 2011-2015)
  • Yahoo! Emotive Brand Awards (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014)
  • Capital Weekly The Excellence of Listed Enterprise Awards (2011)
  • Sing Tao Excellent Services Brand Award (2007, 2011, 2012 and 2013)
  • PC Market Best of I.T. Award (2010 and 2013)
  • HK Golden IT Award Best Telecom Provider – Mobile Service (2013)
  • Next Magazine Top Service Award - Internet Service Providers Category (2015)
  • The 2016 CAHK STAR Awards - The Best Mobile Network Operator (Gold Award), The Best Brand Campaign (Silver Award), and The Best Enterprise Service (Silver Award)

    • Service Plans

    SmarTone offers a range of fixed data allowance options to suit different customer needs:

  • SuperCare Plans
  • SuperCare Family Plans
  • ExtraCare Plan
  • GoodCare Plans
  • U Plan - Offering 6GB data usage with 4000 voice call minutes. It also offers U Plan with 10GB data.

    • In June 2016, SmarTone introduced its new Flexi-switch service, giving customers time to better understand their actual data usage, and the flexibility to change their plan once within the first three months of a new mobile subscription.

    For the latest updates on service plans, please visit SmarTone Hong Kong's website.

    Data Roaming Services

    To suit the needs of business and leisure travellers, SmarTon offers different data roaming products:

  • Enjoy data roaming with a fixed daily rate in over 150 destinations with the high-speed Roaming Data Day Plan - for SmarTone customers only
  • Enjoy all the benefits of traditional WiFi egg without any of its hassles with the value-for-money Virtual WiFi Egg - for SmarTone customers only
  • Enjoy data roaming in multiple popular destinations with a fixed fee with Prepaid Travel Data Cards - for both SmarTone and non-SmarTone customers

    • Fibre Broadband

    In July 2014, SmarTone launched ST Fibre Broadband, offering a range of fibre broadband plans to the home, HomeFibre 200 / 500 / 1000, to suit customer needs for different broadband speeds.

    Exclusive services

    SmarTone’s exclusive services include: Call Guard (Blocked 120 million junk calls ), ST Protect, Add-on Numbers, HealthReach and Spend it. These services can be used on smartphones and tablets of the iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms.

    SmarTone also offers support to customers such as powerbank free rental, free phone content transfer service, SmarTone Screen Replace™ and mobile devices repair service.

    Membership Programme

    SmarTone has a membership programme named PriorityPlus™ for its elite customers. Membership is valid for 12 months. The company invites eligible customers to become a member of PriorityPlus™, or renews their membership, based on their cumulative eligible spend within the past rolling 12 months has met the qualifying spending level of the PriorityPlus™ membership tier.

    Online Store

    In February 2016, SmarTone launched its online store at shop.smartone.com, bringing consumers smartphones and accessories from brands internationally, as well as prepaid travel data card and stored-value SIMs for use in Hong Kong.

    References

    SmarTone Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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