This report comes from a taxi zipping along in HK

HONG KONG: This report comes to you from a taxi that’s zipping along in Hong Kong’s financial district. It isn’t just the taxi that’s racing at a fair clip: so is the Internet connection I’ve accessed on the mobile broadband facility that the cab offers, with download speeds of up to 3.6 megabits per second!

That’s because the cab is one of only 100 in Hong Kong chosen by telecom service provider SmarTone-Vodafone to unveil the world’s first mobile broadband service in taxis — for free during a three-month trial period!

Says SmarTone-Vodafone CEO Douglas Li: “Our pioneering mobile broadband service in a fleet of taxis offers consumers free trial while they are on the move. This lets them enjoy the freedom, convenience and flexibility provided by a truly ubiquitous wireless broadband service.” 

The technology that drives this on-the-go service is called HSDPA: in geek-speak, that expands as High Speed Downlink Packet Access, a 3G mobile telephony protocol that allows for speedy downloads. All that I, as a passenger, have to do is to plug my laptop into the USB modem that’s hooked onto the back of the passenger seat, and I’m cruising on the information superhighway, surfing the Internet. 

The service offers each customer a private broadband line, with the promise of privacy and confidentiality. Says Houston Wu, a Hong Kong resident who sampled the service:
“I don’t usually have long taxi rides in Hong Kong — at any rate, not long enough to make the most of this service — but I suppose if you’re routinely stuck in traffic, you could put your time to productive use.”

The taxi broadband service is only the latest such digital offering in this wired city:  Hong Kong also boasts of Asia’s first wi-fi on a ferry service. A high-speed catamaran that ferries passengers at some 30-plus knots from Hong Kong Island to an outlying island is equipped with free wireless broadband Internet access.

On a typical ride, investment bankers in $900 business suits furiously thumb away on Blackberry dials or their laptops.

Young schoolgirls in tartan skirts play noisy, mind-numbing games on their handphones, idly bursting bubblegum balloons… Perhaps tomorrow, I’ll file my despatch from somewhere on the South China Sea.