Netvigator

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Netvigator (網上行) is the largest residential internet service provider in Hong Kong, operated as a brand of PCCW. The company specializes in ADSL broadband Internet connections of 1.5 Mbit/s, 3 Mbit/s, 6 Mbit/s, 8 Mbit/s and 18 Mbit/s downstream (640 kbit/s to 1 Mbit/s upstream). In the late 1990s, Netvigator Broadband was known as "Super Netvigator", then "Ultraline", and was a jewel of its time. Nowadays, although the company has a coverage of over 90% of Hong Kong, providers such as HGC (Hutchison Global Communications, also owned by Li Ka Shing), and HKBN (Hong Kong Broadband Network, owned by CTI), offer fiber and ethernet Internet at faster speeds (10 Mbit/s up/down for HGC, 100/1000 Mbit/s up/down for HKBN) and for a fraction of the cost. However, Netvigator still hold the largest market share as of 2006 because of PCCW's landline dominance and pervasive advertising. Another reason is that Now Broadband TV and Netvigator's Video on demand service, media.now.com.hk, require a Netvigator Boardband Connection to be watched.

During the days of "Super Netvigator", the company offered iTV, an interactive movie television network that allowed users to watch movies on their TV screen by demand. The service ended in the early 2000's, but in recent years, a successor and competitor to Cable TV, Now TV, was launched.

1 History
2 Services provided by Netvigator
3 United Kingdom Operation
4 External links

[edit] History

Netvigator dial-up Internet Access Service was first launched under Hongkong Telecom IMS Limited under the directorship of Dr. William Lo on April 18, 1996. It acquired another ISP, hkstar, with all the infrastructure and clients. Their broadband service, under the brand name "Super Netvigator" was launched as a value-added service of the InteractiveTV (iTV) in May 1998. Subsequently it launched their standalone broadband service (directly connected to PC without iTV), under the service name "Netvigator 1.5M Ultraline", in July 1999.

[edit] Services provided by Netvigator

now TV: An IPTV service

now.com.hk: An entertainment website with content of Media, Music, Game, Forum...

[edit] United Kingdom Operation

Trading initially under the Netvigator brand, PCCW entered the UK broadband market with wireless broadband (independent of phone lines) in mid 2004, starting with the Thames Valley. The brand migrated to Now Broadband during 2005, and the London market was opened for business. At the same time the support call centre for the UK was moved from Hong Kong to an outsourcer in the north of England. Now uses TD-CDMA to provide its broadband using two modems one built by IP Wireless and one by UT Starcom, it is available in 3 speeds 256k, 512k and 1mb with 128k and 256k upstream respectively.