Hong Kong Telecom

revenue	HK$34.75 billion

revenue year	2024

net income	HK$5.1 billion

net income year	2024

num employees	over 12,500‡R1R‡

num employees year	mid-2025

assets	HK$116.81 billion

assets year	2024

equity	HK$39.65 billion

equity year	2024

brands	1O1O, csl, Club Sim, 1O1O HOME, Netvigator, HKT Home Phone, eye, Smart Charge, Smart Living, Now TV, Sooper Yoo, PCCW Global, The Club, Tap & Go, DrGo

parent	PCCW

subsid	CSL Mobile Sun Mobile

location	Hong Kong

homepage	www.hkt.com/?language=en_US

footnotes	in consolidated financial statement‡R2R‡

HKT Limited, also used to be known as Hong Kong Telecom , is one of the largest telecommunications companies in Hong Kong. It has a dominant position in fixed-line, mobile, IDD and broadband services in Hong Kong. HKT Group is a subsidiary of PCCW since 2000, after it was acquired from Cable & Wireless plc.

The company, along with HKT Trust, is a pair of listed corporations on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which the two corporations were bundled as one single stapled security.

Corporate identities

The former holding company of the group was Cable & Wireless HKT Limited (former ticker symbol: 8). It was a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless plc. It was taken over and privatised by PCCW in 2000. PCCW also started to use the ticker symbol "8" after the takeover. Cable & Wireless HKT Limited was formerly known as Hong Kong Telecommunications Limited, which was incorporated in 1988; it was renamed to Cable & Wireless HKT Limited in 1999, but renamed again to PCCW-HKT Limited in 2000; PCCW-HKT still use the same registered Chinese name (香港電訊有限公司) until 2011, which in the same year the Chinese name became the registered Chinese name of HKT Limited instead.[3]

PCCW-HKT had a major subsidiary PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited ,[4] which was incorporated in 1925 under the name Hongkong Telephone Company, Limited;[3] it was briefly known as Cable & Wireless HKT Telephone Limited from 1999 to 2000.[3] As of 31 December 2017, PCCW-HKT[2] as well as PCCW-HKT Telephone were still live, wholly owned subsidiaries of PCCW.[2] However, the telephone services are now provided by HKT's wholly owned subsidiary, Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Limited instead, after a group restructuring in 2008.

In October 2011, PCCW shareholders approved a partial spin-off of the assets as HKT on the Hong Kong stock exchange (but excluding the two legal persons PCCW-HKT and PCCW-HKT Telephone). HKT was successfully listed on 29 November 2011, as HKT Trust and HKT Limited.[5][6] HKT Limited was incorporated in the Cayman Islands, while its direct parent entity, HKT Trust, was set up in Hong Kong under the laws of Hong Kong.[7]

History

Domestic telecommunications facilities in Hong Kong became more advanced in 1925 when the Hong Kong Telephone Company Limited (HKTC) took over the interests of John Pender's China and Japan Telephone and Electric Company. The company's mandate included providing all the British colonies with local telephone services. Over the next six decades, Hong Kong Telephone's line capacity grew to more than 2.5 million, with the company serving approximately six million people.[8]

Telecommunications became increasingly important following World War I, and in 1929 the British companies Marconi Wireless and Eastern Telegraph joined to establish Cable & Wireless. The company's strategy was to supply telephone and telegraph services in Britain's colonies, and it succeeded in securing an exclusive franchise to provide international communications services in Hong Kong.[8]

By 1972, the company's biggest operation was its subsidiary in rapidly growing Hong Kong. Hong Kong Telephone, meanwhile, built a new headquarters in 1972. The company's growth was said to typify the colony's transition from an economy based on manufacturing to one dependent on service industries, which created a demand for telecommunications services. In 1975 Hong Kong Telephone's franchise for domestic service in the colony was extended for an additional 20 years, to expire just ahead of Hong Kong's reversion to China's control in 1997.[8]

HKT (Hong Kong Telecom)

HKT Group Holdings Limited was formed in 2008 to hold the telecommunications services, media and IT businesses of the PCCW Group, a reorganization designed to improve the Group's operational efficiencies.[27] HKT and its predecessor PCCW-HKT, was the first quadruple play provider in Hong Kong, offering media content and services for fixed-line, broadband Internet, TV and mobile. PCCW acquired HKT, at that time known as Cable & Wireless HKT, in February 2000 from Cable & Wireless.[32]

Main business and subsidiaries

Commercial and international business

The HKT Commercial Group provides ICT services to small, medium and large enterprises. The group managed the installation of Asia's largest IP-enabled network for securities and derivatives markets, built for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and known as SDNet.

Former service

iTV, a video-on-demand multimedia interactive television service launched in March 1998.[59][60][61][62] In addition to video, it offered music-on-demand and racing-on-demand.[59][60] iTV was the first streaming platform in what later became the over-the-top television (OTT) industry.[63]

Controversy

In 2018, it was exposed that HKT breached the land leases for 4 of their telephone exchange buildings. They were illegally converted to customers service centers.[74]

References

The Group at the website of "HKT Here to Serve"^
2017 Annual Report HKT Limited c/o HKT Trust, 28 March 2018, retrieved 9 April 2018^
Data in Hong Kong Companies Registry^

Chronology

Hong Kong Telephone Company

1906: China and Japan Telephone and Electric Company acquired a 25-year franchised licence on fixed-line.[9]
1925: China and Japan Telephone and Electric Company was acquired[10] by Hong Kong Telephone Company Limited (HKTC). The government also granted HKTC a 50 years franchised licence on telephone service.[11][12]
1968: HKTC's franchise was extended for another 20 years.[12]
1983: HKTC started to build their own mobile radiotelephone service, which was supplied and installed by NEC;[13] in the next year the service went public under HKTC's subsidiary Communication Services Limited[12]

Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong)

1871: The predecessor of Cable & Wireless established its Hong Kong branch, for its submarine communications cables that connect from Hong Kong to Saigon, Fuzhou, Manila, Labuan and Macau[9] (or 1936 according to another source[14])
1962: Cable & Wireless acquired a 25-year franchise for telephone and telegraph services[12]
1981: The Hong Kong branch of Cable & Wireless plc was incorporated as Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong) Limited (later known as Hong Kong Telecom International; HKTI).[8] Hong Kong government was a minority shareholder for 20%.[14]