CSL Asks Hong Kong to Go Beyond

CSL logoOn Thursday (Nov. 25) CSL launched the world’s first LTE/DC-HSPA+ mobile network during their “Go Beyond” event held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong.

According to CSL it’s new network is capable of achieving speeds of 100 Mbps downlink and 38 Mbps uplink, with its DC-HSPA component supporting 42 Mbps. It is also Asia’s first commercial LTE network with full digital voice traffic, built in partnership with mainland China’s ZTE.

Although CSL refers to this new network as “4G”, but according to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radiocommunication Sector (R).

A 4G network must have target peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high mobility such as mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility such as nomadic/local wireless access

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Smartone-Vodafone Attempts to be Chic

Being one of the most critical users of Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) I am also someone who believes SMV can do better.

With the introduction of Zendgo on the SMV mobile network it is definitely a sign that SMV wants to be chic, whether it is time will tell. Using substitutions in place of Chinese or English characters in a message is not new. Taiwanese and mainland Chinese use numbers to represent phrases in SMS and IM. Japanese mobile and iPhone users have Emoji. Mobile handsets and carriers around the world had adopted Emoji as an alternative form of expression in SMS like emoticon‘s use for IM.

Why SMV invents a new form of emoticon, especially when its users have to subscribe to a tariff plan to use. Not to mention the recipients of these Zendgo message will either have to install a Zendogo client and/or subscribe to the SMV Zendgo plan to view the incoming message.

Can someone explains to me why SMV doesn’t simply promote the use of Emoji instead? It is free for all handsets that support it (ie. iPhone, Samsung selected models, LG selected models, and many others).

Smartone-Vodafone Heartless to Its Most Loyal Customer [Updated]

From January 31 – February 14 I travelled to three US cities: New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. As you all know I am a long time iPhone user, someone who is very familiar with the Internet and various technologies. Hence, I was surprised to received a SMS from Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) on Feb. 5th, while in Los Angeles (the second city of my trip), regarding my data roaming charges exceeding HKD1400.00.

I immediately followed the instructions in the SMS and contacted SMV’s Customer Service (CS) department to determine what had went wrong. Especially when at that point, out of the 6 days I had been away from Hong Kong I spent 2 of those traveling on air planes.

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Smartone-Vodafone Began Its Transition (Updated)

Smartone-Vodafone logoThis morning when I plug my iPhone in to iTunes, it reported that there is a new carrier update. The .IPCC file is what was updated and each Apple carrier partner in the world has one of these files. Visual Voicemail and Tethering are dependent on these files to be activated officially on the iPhone.

So with my report yesterday regarding SMV’s Voicemail migration and today’s appearance of the .IPCC file, SMV is well on its way to become Apple’s 2nd official carrier partner in Hong Kong.

[Update: January 16, 2010, 19:00]
After restarting my iPhone I now have Internet Tethering back. What I also had to do was to remove the Profile originally created with Help.Benm.at.

Cryptic Smartone-Vodafone SMS

Smartone-Vodafone logoAll of a sudden I received the following cryptic SMS message from Smartone-Vodafone:

Voicemail system migration has been completed. Your greeting & PIN have been reset. To check messages before system migration, dial 138 & press 5.

The thing is that there was no prior message to say that the Voicemail system is to be migrated. Also what does the last sentence mean? Isn’t this SMS to inform me that the said migration has already been completed?

Seeing that this Voicemail “migration” comes so close to the official iPhone launch by Smartone-Vodafone on the 23rd. Does it imply that I’m correct earlier about Apple’s Visual Voicemail coming to SMV iPhone customers very soon?

Tethering Finally Returns to SMV iPhone Users in HK

Starting January 23, 2010 Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) will become an official Apple carrier partner in Hong Kong, along with 3 HK. May be this will mean that the two long awaited features: “Visual Voicemail” and “Tethering”, will also be officially available to SMV customers (old and new). I was not able to get an official confirmation about this, as everyone I spoke to are keeping the SMV iPhone tariff plans and features very secretive.

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Speed of 3G Network in Hong Kong

Smartone-Vodafone logoPCCW LogoCSL LogoEarly this year both PCCW and CSL launched their HSPA+ network. As a result improving the speed and capacity of their respective networks. Offering a theoretical downlink speed of 21Mbps and uplink speed of 7Mbps.

On Wednesday, November 4th Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) launched their HSPA+ upgrade to their 3G network.

The difference between SMV’s announcements and the others, is that SMV also released a document to clarify the theoretical speed of HSPA+. Where as other mobile carriers in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world, only focused on marketing the HSPA+ networks’ capability of 21Mbps speed, leaving the actual ability to achieve 21Mbps as small prints in their promotional materials. Such practices of these other mobile carriers are very misleading for layman consumers. I will attempt to explain further, to help clarify this theoretical speed of HSPA+ for layman consumers.

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Speed of 3G Network in Hong Kong

Smartone-Vodafone logoPCCW LogoCSL LogoEarly this year both PCCW and CSL launched their HSPA+ network. As a result improving the speed and capacity of their respective networks. Offering a theoretical downlink speed of 21Mbps and uplink speed of 7Mbps.
On Wednesday, November 4th Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) launched their HSPA+ upgrade to their 3G network.

The difference between SMV’s announcements and the others, is that SMV also released a document to clarify the theoretical speed of HSPA+. Where as other mobile carriers in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world, only focused on marketing the HSPA+ networks’ capability of 21Mbps speed, leaving the actual ability to achieve 21Mbps as small prints in their promotional materials. Such practices of these other mobile carriers are very misleading for layman consumers. I will attempt to explain further, to help clarify this theoretical speed of HSPA+ for layman consumers.

Continue reading “Speed of 3G Network in Hong Kong”

Mobil Carriers Differences in HK

Smartone-Vodafone logoBefore you jump into a mobile tariff contract (for 2 years or 15 months) with your new iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS you need to understand that not all 3G (HSDPA) network are the same. This is especially important if you are going to buy a new iPhone 3GS.

3 HK LogoThe reason is because, unlike the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS is capable of supporting 7.2 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink speeds. At the moment as far as I know the 3 HK HSDPA network is capable of supporting 3.6 Mbps downlink speed at most locations and 7.2 Mbps at certain locations. Where as Smartone-Vodafone’s HSDPA network is already capable of supporting 14 Mbps downlink at every location.