Australian telecom firm Telstra announced yesterday its mobile arm in Hong Kong, CSL, had completed the acquisition of New World Mobile, becoming the largest mobile operator in the city and reducing the number of players to five.

In the new venture, Telstra has 76.4 per cent stakes while New World Mobile holds the rest.

After the merger, the new venture, called CSL New World Mobility Group, has about 60,000 3G users.

CSL New World Mobile has also become the number one mobile operator in Hong Kong in terms of revenue, profitability and customers, accounting for 34 per cent market share.

It is expected to deliver new and attractive 3G services after it finishes the construction of the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network, based on a technology sometimes called 3.5G, by the middle of this year.

Our aim is to satisfy customers through innovative and customer-oriented services instead of reducing prices, Telstra's CEO Sol Trujillo said at a press conference yesterday.

"We focus on customers' satisfaction, value and quality across all the segments in this competitive market," he said.

His remarks apparently referred to a six-month free offer of 3G services launched by Sunday Communications, controlled by Hong Kong's top fixed-line operator PCCW.

Hong Kong's mobile market has long been described as ultra-competitive with six players (now five) vying for a market of 7 million users.

"This is the first step taken by the company to expand the Asian market," Trujilo said, but declined to give any details as to how and when the company would make its second move in the region.

He also refused to tell when Telstra would float the new merged group's shares in Hong Kong.

Despite this, New World Mobile's share price still surged by 8.13 per cent to close at HK$1.73 yesterday.

(HK Edition 04/01/2006 page3)