Q. How has the Covid-19 outbreak affected the demand for HGC’s services – and the challenges of implementation – in the past few months?
With social distancing policies implemented in several countries, the usage of OTT services such as secure remote working, video conferencing, live commerce, gaming and entertainment increased tremendously.
We have therefore observed OTTs’ demand upsurge on IaaS, NaaS and SaaS, with HGC’s Game Accelerator as one of the key streams. HGC’s SaaS platform supports OTTs in scaling up their business through burstable bandwidth over short periods of time, with flexible technical and commercial setup options, to react to the rapid growth in customer demand and maintain the quality of their services worldwide.
The use of AI and Big Data analytics, meanwhile, allows OTTs to predict their capacity expansion on SaaS, which helps them to be better prepared for unprecedented upsurges in traffic. It has been a major learning opportunity for many, and HGC is dedicated to reflecting our customer needs with the guarantee of delivering high-quality, agile and flexible services.
Q. What benefit can 5G bring to OTT? What is HGC’s role in 5G development?
5G offers an excellent foundation for OTT in both quality and quantity of bandwidth, as it supports bandwidth-hungry applications such as ultra-high definition video on demand, 4K live streaming and cloud gaming.
Playing a major role in supporting MNOs to provide 5G services in Hong Kong, HGC has uplifted our backhaul infrastructure, as well as the connectivity between base stations and land operations to meet the demanding 5G requirements, where HGC’s backhaul network is now capable of the ultra-low latency required by the many lifestyle-enhancing and mission-critical applications emerging from 5G technology, such as autonomous vehicle systems and remote robotic surgery.
The solid foundation of 5G’s high-quality bandwidth has also helped enhance HGC’s software-based OTT platform in providing pushing services for high-quality media streaming, AI, IoT, AR/VR and next generation gaming experiences to gamers through HGC Game Accelerator Edge Computing.
Q. What are the key focuses of HGC’s SDN in terms of inter-carrier network interoperability?
It is important for companies to have agile, flexible, scalable network design such as SDN to provide a contingency plan and managed digital networks. HGC’s flagship International Marketplace provides Network as a Service (NaaS), a software-defined networking (SDN) platform that enables global connectivity on Ethernet layer to the major carrier hubs, DC - DC worldwide (i.e. Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Los Angeles).
Customers can continuously reach various global public cloud services such as AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, as well as international Internet Exchanges like AMS-IX, LINX and DE-CIX to meet the needs of ISPs and global OTTs.
To address customers’ future connectivity requirements and enhance interoperability between carriers through inter-carrier network orchestration, HGC is dedicated to cultivating SDN federation with different telecom operators and providers, starting from the ASEAN region. We believe that such alliances can maximize the capability allocation of different telecom operators, as well as increasing agility throughout the telco ecosystem.
With scalable network access, this not only helps companies to better prepare their contingency plans and managed digital networks, but also gives the telco industry greater ability to cope with surging network demand.
Q. What particular characteristics – for example in terms of latency, scalability and availability – make HGC’s offering stand out in the market?
HGC has established a leading position in the local and international fixed network industry. HGC’s network reach also stretches to fast-growing Asian markets like mainland China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
HGC is a technological fast mover, which allows us to meet the surging market demand for fast, secure and resilient network services, data centres, and support on-demand burstable bandwidth needs such as IPX for OTT, SDN with instant DC-DC, and DC-Cloud activation.
Moreover, through our software-based OTT platform, which combines IaaS, NaaS and SaaS with customized bundling to cater to the needs of OTTs of all sizes, HGC addresses OTTs’ concerns on latency, scalability and the availability of bandwidth. HGC offers connectivity with highly customized and one-stop-shop solutions as part of our services manifesto and our commitment to customers.
