From the 2017 policy speech, section 81: https://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/2017/eng/policy.html

"To become a smart city, we must strive to achieve universal broadband coverage across the territory as far as possible. Currently, the household broadband penetration rate in Hong Kong is over 90%, among the highest in the world. Most people can now enjoy high-speed quality broadband services. However, for villages, remote locations in the New Territories and the outlying islands, the progress of network coverage by telecommunications companies is slow due to the high costs of network installation and a small base. In view of this, I propose that the Government takes the lead to provide telecommunications companies with financial incentives in the form of subsidies to encourage the extension of fibre-based network to villages in remote locations. The plan will cover about 380 villages currently without high-speed broadband network coverage and is expected to benefit nearly 170 000 villagers. This initiative not only demonstrates the people-oriented philosophy of the current-term Government, but also provides the telecommunications infrastructure necessary for the conservation and revitalisation of rural and remote areas in future."

Whether the islands are included in the 380 villages is the question I'd like an answer to.
And what happens to the shitty expensive VDSL now? Hopefully binned and we go straight to fibre.

Most likely not Lamma as fibre on it would be pointless and not increase any speeds as long as we have no fibre off the island. It would be prohibitively expensive, govt. subsidies just a drop in the bucket, and PCCW is in the final stages of finishing their VDSL2 upgrades, at least for the Greater YSW Area, so they'd resist a fibre upgrade for Lamma.
Interestingly, their VDSL upgrade includes new fibre-connected distribution boxes installed in the last few weeks and months all over the Greater YSW Area. The new roadside PCCW boxes have a transparent window, so can be differentiated from the old copper wire distribution boxes. But the fibre is ONLY from those boxes to the upgraded microwave links atop Po Wah Yuen and NO fibre is planned and expected to the home on Lamma anytime soon, govt. subsidies notwithstanding.

Anyway, it's just a govt. policy statement, it might take decades to upgrade these 380 off-island villages with at least some fibre for the centers of the villages.

In the meantime, like a fast increasing number of Lamma residents, our household has given up on broadband and we rely almost exclusively on unlimited data 4G nowadays. 5-10+ times faster than broadband and very reliable so far, at zero extra cost over my old, standard, single mobile phone charge.
We might never pay for the much more expensive Broadband upgrades, just keeping the old, inexpensive 3Mbps broadband as a backup for now.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

She did say "New Territories and the outlying islands," and there aren't that many inhabited "outlying islands" so it should include Lamma. But it's all very vague. And worst of all, "encourage", not "require".

If it's left up to PCCW, all we get is VDSL at double or triple the price of DSL. And 4 fucking year commitments if what they pulled elsewhere applies.
Those pricks will probably claim that qualifies as "fast broadband" and pocket the subsidy, while still screwing us and not upgrading the back end enough to supply all the homes they connect.

My DSL has been less crappy recently, except during the typhoon days when speed went to almost zero. Due to massive demand from all the people stuck at home rather than damage I think. Anyway, I won't "upgrade" to VDSL. If wireless seems reliable enough I might switch over to that eventually, but not keep both.

Here's a piece I wrote for China Daily:

Broadband a necessity for everyone in Hong Kong
By Alan Sargent
Thursday, November 30, 2017,10:58

In her Policy Address on Oct 11 Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said “in the New Territories and the outlying islands, the progress of network coverage by telecommunications companies is slow due to the high costs of network installation and a small base” and the government would provide “subsidies to encourage the extension of fiber-based network to villages in remote locations”. This is welcome but falls short of the “universal service obligation” applying to telephone service, which states that it will be “available to all people in all areas”. In 1998, and again in 2007, when this policy was reviewed, it was suggested it be extended to broadband but the Communications Authority chose to leave us at the mercy of the telecoms. Officials said Hong Kong’s average internet speed is among the highest in the world, adding something like: Hong Kong is a free market for telecommunications and market forces will bring us all to internet utopia. The new policy is an admission that, in fact, the wide disparity between internet access in rural and urban areas was only increasing.

So why is broadband important even to those living in “remote” (in Hong Kong terms) villages?

I edit and design books. Twenty years ago I was in an office in Central, and had a drawer full of floppy disks from authors and sent artwork to the filmmaker. Now I work from home. Publishers and authors send me documents by email; I edit the text, lay it out and send back a PDF to the author for review, to a proofreader for final check and finally to the printer. Often I also make a Kindle edition and submit that to Amazon. My work and livelihood depend critically on reliable internet. Neighbors are also working at home or telecommuting with their office. Those doing graphics and video or audio work need large bandwidth. And just about every local business uses it, for dealing with suppliers at least.

While Hong Kong has rocketed into the gigabit internet era, in most “rural” areas we have the same technology as when broadband first became available in about 2001 — digital subscriber line (DSL), a clever hack using the old copper telephone wires to carry a digital signal. This was a wonder in the 1990s. Now, it’s “legacy” technology, limited in capacity and range (speed rapidly drops off a kilometer or so from the exchange), and adds excitement as the copper efficiently conducts lightning strikes into your home network, an unadvertised hazard that destroys dozens of my neighbors’ computers every year (I pull the phoneline out during storms, since one killed my last PC).

Some cobble together wireless networks using mobile hotspots to get higher speed. These are intended for phones, so you easily use your monthly bandwidth in one day. But the telecoms are happy; you have no recourse if they fail as you are breaking the terms of service. So wireless users must keep searching for new companies and offers as the previous ones stop working.

Since 2001 we have seen the cost of home broadband in rural areas steadily increase — now it has more than doubled to HK$300 per month at least, while speed and reliability steadily decline, as more demand creates more frequent bottlenecks and outages. Telecom salesmen have no problem selling services the infrastructure cannot deliver; they still have their commission. Also, providing broadband only via DSL means PCCW gains a further HK$128 a month for the fixed line, even though many would otherwise have dropped it years ago.

Market forces dictate that investment follows the best returns. So telecoms will always choose boosting services in, say, Mid-Levels, where they have fierce competition, rather than in rural areas where they have none. For housing, water, electricity, roads, healthcare and education the government intervenes to ensure essential services to everyone at affordable prices, either providing the service directly or requiring companies in the sector to do so. Without an obligation to provide a minimum quality of service the telecoms can claim we already have “broadband” and pocket the subsidy. When the details of the CE’s commitment are fleshed out, to make a real difference we need more than “encouragement”.

In areas where there is inadequate capacity, government can install the backbone by running internet fiber cables (as thick as a thumb) with the sewage, water or electricity pipes and cables which are being dug up all the time. The same contractors do the job no matter what is being laid; this would save a huge amount of money and inconvenience. The cables could be then leased or sold to telecom operators. Or maybe wireless can handle it all now: extend the subsidy to wireless home broadband (not just renamed mobile services with tiny data caps) and upgraded backbones to the cell towers. The “free market” can handle it from there.

The author works in Hong Kong English publishing, now making his home on a hilltop village on an outer island.

Something might actually happen...


Govt-backed rural broadband likely to roll out in 2019 from Lantau News February 7, 2018 by Robert Clark

Government-backed broadband services could be available to rural Hong Kong residents as early as the second half of next year.

The government expects to issue a tender for subsidised rural fibre deployment in the first half of 2019, Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Edward Yau said today.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam promised the cash support for rural and remote broadband in her October policy address,

The announcement, a shift in policy from the government’s long-held non-interventionist approach, followed complaints from New Territories and Islands residents that with only one broadband provider the competition policy wasn’t working.

In a written response to Legco, Yau said subsidies would be provided “to fixed network operators to encourage the extension of fibre-based network to villages in remote areas.”

Industry regulator Ofca had begun work on the scheme, he said. It will report progress to Legco in May and will later seek funding approval from the Finance Committee.

Yau said tendering work will commence in the first half of 2019.

His response to Legco IT industry member Charles Mok was the first time any details of the scheme had been made public,

However, Yau did not say which villages would qualify for the scheme, how much it would cost, or whether the government would subsidise fibre rollout within remote villages as well as connecting to them.

But he did say he expected the additional fibre would boost mobile network capacity.
"Upon completion of the project with fibre-based networks extended to villages in these remote areas, [mobile network operators] can make use of the fibre-based networks to install new base stations, thereby enhancing the mobile coverage and capacity in these areas."