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As reported in http://www.mobilecommerceworld.com/Tmpl/article.asp?CID=1&AID=19976&TCode=NW&T1=13/5/2003, PCCW has delayed initial plans to roll out Bluetooth hotspots in China, citing concerns over the SARS virus.

PCCW had planned to launch the new service early this month at the Pacific Coffee chain of outlets, but decided to postpone it for a month until customers returned to the cafes, PCCW spokeswoman Irene Ho said.

Bluetooth hot spots are similar to WiFi hot spots. Customers within a hot spot who have Bluetooth-enabled personal digital assistants (PDAs) can access content from PCCW's partner Web sites, including scmp.com, and download e-mail.

PCCW marketing manager Terence Ling said, however, that the difference between a Wi-Fi and a Bluetooth service was that "Bluetooth is like a take-and-go concept where you do purely downloads and offline usage. The time spent online is short. You don't do browsing like in Wi-Fi, which has full, always-on Internet."

PCCW general manager of product development and management Allen Wong said Bluetooth access points would be installed in all Pacific Coffee cafes operating Wi-Fi hot spots.

The launch, initially planned for last week, was postponed due to the outbreak of SARS, which has discouraged customers from lingering in public places such as cafes.

The service will work with devices running Palm and Pocket PC operating systems. Mr Ling said PCCW was working on supporting Bluetooth mobile phones and PDAs, and cellphones running the Symbian OS. Mr Wong indicated that the number of Bluetooth hot spots could eventually exceed Wi-Fi hot spots because Bluetooth stations were smaller and used less power. PCCW is extending its Wi-Fi network this year to cover more than 400 hot spots in Hong Kong. It is also examining the feasibility of implementing Bluetooth access in PCCW public phone booths and MTR stations.

"We are still working on the commercial arrangements and nothing is confirmed. But our idea is to have Bluetooth hot spots in some MTR stations so users can download the day's news from scmp.com or Apple Daily on to their Bluetooth PDA and read the news on the way to work," he said.

Source: China Morning Post