LC Q6: Promoting the use of wireless services and technologies

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Following is a question by the Hon Sin Chung Kai and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr John Tsang, in the Legislative Council today (December 15):

Question:

With regard to promoting the use of wireless services and technologies, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) how it has implemented the recommendations made by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Promotion of Wireless Services and Technology in November last year;

(b) of the pilot projects on wireless and mobile services and technologies recommended to the Government by the Task Force on the Promotion of Wireless Services and Technology, which is responsible for following up the work of the said Working Group; the projects that have been launched in response to these recommendations and their results; and the pilot projects to be launched next year; and

(c) given that the Taiwan authorities are going to pursue the objectives of the "M-Taiwan Plan" by allocating seven billion Taiwan dollars to develop wireless Internet access infrastructure and applications, whether it will make reference to the plan and take measures to encourage public and private enterprises to set up wireless broadband Internet access infrastructure at locations with high pedestrian flow, such as shopping malls, MTR stations, railway stations, large housing estates and commercial areas, to promote the widespread adoption of WiMAX (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access) and to provide diversified e-government services for the public through wireless technology so as to promote the use of wireless services; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(1) The Office of Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) has formed a Task Force to follow up on the recommendations made by the Working Group on Promotion of Wireless Services and Technology in 2003. The Task Force has been working on eight areas and the progress is summarised at Annex I.

(2) The Task Force has been coordinating the implementation of the recommendations made by the Working Group to encourage and support various departments in identifying and implementing trial projects on wireless and mobile services and technology. These include the use of mobile and speech technology on government web sites, mobile email, transmission of multimedia messages through the office email system and deployment of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for asset management.

There are also other planned pilot projects for the coming year. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) plans to adopt the RFID technology to manage the library of heritage resources and to install wireless hotspots at its Hong Kong Heritage Resource Centre. The Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme will provide support for a number of services via mobile phone and Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and the Judiciary plans to adopt RFID for case file management. For details of the above-mentioned initiatives, please refer to Annex II.

The Government will continue to monitor the development of wireless and mobile services and technology and to explore further opportunities for testing and deploying wireless and mobile technology, with due regard to cost-effectiveness and other feasibility considerations.

(3) To encourage the industry to provide multi-faceted services through local area networks and to promote the wider adoption of wireless and mobile services and technology in the community, the OFTA has established class licences on public wireless LAN (PWLAN) services since January 2003. We aim to facilitate the provision of PWLAN services (e.g. wireless surfing on the Internet) through a simple licensing mechanism. The application for licensing does not incur any fees and in order to be a licence holder, a service provider just need to register with the OFTA before commencement of business operation. As of October 2004, the OFTA had already registered 23 service providers providing PWLAN services at over 200 locations.

The OFTA will issue a public consultation paper later this month on the introduction of class licences on Broadband Wireless Access services (including services based on the Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) standard). We hope this will facilitate network operators in implementing the new broadband access infrastructure so that consumers can enjoy a wider coverage of wireless broadband service.

Annex I

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Summary of Progress made by the Task Force in following up on the recommendations made by the Working Group on Promotion of Wireless Services and Technology:

(i) Enhance enterprise awareness of application opportunities, business benefits, capabilities (including the security aspects) and service offerings of wireless solutions:

Under the auspices of the Task Force, the Hong Kong Wireless Development Centre (HKWDC) has been working closely with the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and other trade associations to promote wireless technologies and demonstrate wireless e-commerce solutions to the public and the industry through various means. Since December 2003, we have organized more than 20 seminars covering various relevant technology topics, participated in the ICT Expo 2004 in April 2004 and the IT Roadshow for Public Housing Estates 2004 from July to December 2004, and broadcast two series of radio episodes in February and March 2004.

To better understand the adoption level of the wireless services and technology in the trade and industry sectors, relevant questions were added to the "2004 Annual Survey on Information Technology Usage and Penetration in the Business Sector" and the "e-Business Adoption Survey 2004". The Census & Statistics Department has published the result of the former survey on December 6, 2004; the HKPC is conducting the latter survey.

The HKWDC has also conducted survey on the adoption of wireless technology in the logistics, tourism, financial services and entertainment sectors in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. The survey report has been published on the Internet for reference by the industry and the public.

(ii) Continue to promote wider use of wireless services within the Government in line with established e-Government policy:

The OGCIO has been promoting the wireless services and technology to government departments through seminars, theme pages on the government internal portal, the ITSC Newsletters, etc. It has organised more than 20 seminars since December 2003.

The OGCIO and departments have also identified and conducted trial projects on wireless services and technology. For more details, please refer to the reply to Part 2 of the question.

(iii) Encourage and facilitate development of seamless end-to-end Chinese language processing capabilities for enterprise information systems with wireless extension to mobile users:

The OGCIO is participating in the "International Ideographs Core (IICORE)" initiative of the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO). The initiative aims to develop the technology to facilitate the use of wireless devices for cross-region transmission of some 9,800 commonly used Chinese characters in the ISO/IEC 10646 character set.

The OGCIO has incorporated the IICORE into the Government's Interoperability Framework Version 3.0. The OGCIO, together with the HKWDC are also liaising with Chinese software vendors to discuss the feasibility and details of implementing the IICORE in their products.

The HKWDC has conducted research on the issues concerning Chinese character input and display on wireless and mobile devices in July 2004 and has reviewed the test results to facilitate further technology development.

(iv) Encourage and facilitate the continuous development and enhancement of information security technologies and solutions:

The Government has setup a Wireless Security theme page in the InfoSec website (infosec.gov.hk) to promote public awareness, to educate and to share with the public the relevant security guidelines and best practice. The HKWDC is also conducting tests on the Mobile Virtual Private Network (Mobile VPN) solutions for Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

(v) Foster closer co-operation and encourage information sharing among various ICT sectors:

The HKWDC organised the 3G Developer Forum in March 2004 to foster the partnership between the wireless system developers, the network operators and the equipment suppliers.

The HKWDC also organised overseas and Mainland study missions, such as the ICT Mission to South Korea in September 2004 and the China-HK SP Collaboration Forum in October 2004, to promote cooperation between local companies and their counterparts outside Hong Kong. The HKWDC has also entered into cooperation agreements with its counterparts in Canada, Australia and South Korea.

(vi) Encourage development of generic products, technical design models and interface protocols based on open interoperable and device - independent standards:

The HKWDC has launched two system and service development platforms that support Short Message Service (SMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) technologies. These facilities enable the industry players to lower their development costs and shorten the time to market of their products and solutions. So far, more than 20 product suites have completed testing using the facilities.

(vii) Forge industry-wide collaboration for the creation of a branding effect that demonstrates Hong Kong's strength in innovation, technology explication and supply of wireless services:

The Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association (WTIA) and the HKPC are making preparations for the first Hong Kong Wireless Technology Excellence Award (HKWTEA) in 2005. This will give recognition to outstanding and innovative wireless applications developed locally and help to promote Hong Kong's best-in-class wireless applications overseas.

(viii) Encourage development of innovative service models (e.g. subscription-based application service provision):

The WTIA and the HKWDC launched the Cyberport 3G Project to provide a 3G enabling environment to support the development of 3G contents and application systems and will focus on the research and testing of various service and business models for different user segments.

Annex II

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Details of the wireless and mobile services and technologies pilot projects:

Bureaux and Departments:

I. OGCIO

Initiatives and Results:

(a) Mobile Speech Web Sites

In May 2004, the OGCIO launched the mobile speech websites for bureaux and departments to access and listen to government information from three government web sites on the fly through mobile devices. The pilot service would enhance the work efficiency of government field staff and can demonstrate the convenience of providing mobile government information to the citizens, especially the elderly and visually impaired person. The pilot will end in February 2005. The OGCIO will evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot system and study the related content management issue.

(b) Mobile email service

In April 2003, the OGCIO launched a mobile email service for some of its management staff to access their emails through mobile handheld devices. A review of the pilot confirmed that the service was able to enhance the work efficiency of the staff and their responsiveness to urgent matters. As a result, starting from November 2003, the OGCIO extended the mobile email service to other bureaux and departments. Over 60 government users have subscribed to this service. The OGCIO will continue to promote the service to bureaux/departments in the coming year, with a view to leveraging on wireless and mobile technologies to enhance the overall efficiency of the Government.

The OGCIO and the Hong Kong Wireless Development Center (HKWDC) jointly provided a trial service of using office email systems to send MMS to B/Ds. This service facilitates the users to send MMS in a more convenient way. B/Ds will find it much easier and faster to compose and send MMS using the email system. The OGCIO will evaluate the effectiveness of the trial service when the pilot completes in end March 2005.

(d) Tracking of asset items using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)

The OGCIO adopted RFID for tracking of valuable equipment of its IT Development Centre since mid 2004. It will share its experience on this project with other government departments.

II. LCSD

Initiatives and Results:

(a) RFID based Library System

LCSD plans to adopt RFID technology for the Hong Kong Heritage Resource Centre to automate the manual workflow of managing inventory control, cataloguing, borrowing, returning and sorting of materials, so as to enhance overall efficiency. The library system will be launched in 2005.

(b) Wireless Hotspot

LCSD plans to provide wireless hotspot service at the Hong Kong Heritage Resource Centre. This will facilitate the visitors to access its web site and search information in the Internet. It will be launched in 2005.

(III) ESDlife

Initiatives and Results: Wireless ESD Service

Since August 2004, ESDlife has rolled out a number of wireless services for users of mobile phone and PDA. The services include local weather forecast, report of air pollution index, appointment booking for registration of HKID card, appointment booking for HK Smart ID Card replacement exercise and quota checking, marriage register quota checking, government press release and news announcement, etc. The wireless ESD services being planned for rollout in the first quarter of 2005 include request for immigration applications forms, Leisure Link activity enrollment and facility booking.

(IV) Judiciary

Initiatives and Results: Tracking of Criminal Case Files using RFID

Judiciary plans to set up a Case File Tracking System using RFID technology in early 2006. The system will support instant tracking of criminal case files for searching and locating case files in the High Court Clerk of Court's Office. It also provides check-in, check-out and inventory management of case files amongst the Clerk of Court's Office and other office locations in the Judiciary premises. This system will enhance the accuracy of the file records and the efficiency of the file movement in the Judiciary.

Ends/Wednesday, December 15, 2004

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