Communications Authority unveils licence for wireless IoT devices

It’s an effort to embrace disruptive technology for future smart city applications.

The Hong Kong Communications Authority (CA) announced on December 1 the creation of a new five-year licencing regime for the provision of wireless Internet of Things (WIoT) platforms which will use the shared frequency band of 920-925 MHZ.

According to a press release, the move is part of the region’s effort to embrace the new and disruptive technologies offered by the IoT and fifth generation mobile services for smart city applications in the future.

“With the emergence of new generations of wireless and mobile technologies, massive implementation of IoT will become the trend. Hong Kong must prepare itself to keep up with this global trend,” said a spokesman of CA.

The new WiOT licence regime is aimed to have less stringent regulatory control and requires lower fees compared to current carrier licences since their services only support automated machine to machine type data communications.