Hong Kong’s CSL has switched on commercial LTE services, becoming the first operator in Asia to migrate to the next-generation technology. According to a Business Week report, CEO Joseph O’Konek (pictured) told reporters today that the network was live across 50 percent of the Hong Kong population. CSL is owned by Australian giant Telstra and is Hong Kong’s second-largest operator on around 2.7 million connections, according to Wireless Intelligence data. CSL’s new network has been built by China’s ZTE, the same vendor responsible for the operator’s current dual-carrier (DC) HSPA+ network. In a statement, CSL described the launch as the “world’s first LTE/DC-HSPA+ network.” The network has initially launched offering only “corporate services” with consumer offerings planned for the first quarter of 2011 “when [LTE] devices start entering in the market.”

O’Konek alluded to the imminent launch of CSL’s LTE network at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong last week. “For the first time in 30 years the industry has a global standard,” he told delegates. “You will feel the difference on LTE; now we have the bandwidth we can finally offer all those things we’ve been talking about for years.” He added that LTE was required to support rising levels of mobile data traffic at the operator, which he said is currently quadrupling year-on-year and currently accounts for 80 percent of total traffic on its network. CSL also used the event to demonstrate a voice-over-LTE call on the new network.