Kwok noted that technological convergence is one of the drivers of industry consolidation, and that means mergers and acquisitions. "We are going to see more IT companies merging and collaborating, and that means IT specialists must work out how to integrate their underlying systems, not only for billing and account functions, but for delivery of a variety of content, from games to mobile TV," she said. "Naturally, customers want a single, integrated view of their supplier and services."

"The complexity of the modern telecom industry means there is a strong trend towards outsourcing many IT projects, and this includes utilizing skills available on the mainland, or India," said Kwok. "Such remote development projects will test the management strength and cultural aptitude of the [local] IT people."

TV on mobiles

A major event for CSL's technical team was the February 2006 launch of 3G Mobile TV, which currently offers 25 channels of video information. Some channels

are real-time transmission of broadcasts like Bloomberg, BBC World or Cable News, which are transcoded for the 3G format. Another type of content is known as 'mobisoaps' said Tony Seeto, director of business development, who described them as "typically 20-30 three-minute episodes which we jointly developed specifically for mobile devices with a production company in Hong Kong." Seeto said his firm also offers around ten music videos each day."