PCCW

PCCW undertakes initiatives that broaden the availability, inclusion and accessibility of digital technologies. For instance, the company offers discounted broadband access to students and the elderly from low-income households. It also supports The Women’s Foundation’s Girls Go Tech Programme, which provides coding workshops to 200 female secondary school students. The company also has an app for people with impaired hearing that translates text to voice and vice versa.

No evidence could be found of leading practices in this area.

PCCW demonstrates best practice in its high-level handling of cybersecurity within its group of subsidiaries.

No evidence could be found of leading practices in this area.

PCCW should enhance transparency by more thoroughly reporting on its support for digital access and inclusion, and the number of beneficiaries of its initiatives. The company has opportunities to demonstrate how it aligns its products with internationally recognised principles for people with disabilities and how it ensures its workplace is inclusive for employees with disabilities. It should also disclose how the economic value it creates is distributed among its stakeholders.

There is evidence that PCCW has programmes that support digital skills development and school connectivity. However, the company could provide more information about its contributions in this regard, and the number of participants. While PCCW’s digital skills programme aims to enhance technical skills, the company could consider supporting programmes that aim to develop basic and intermediate digital skills.

PCCW could better demonstrate how it handles security incidents and contributes to child online safety. Specifically, the company could provide details about the team responsible for monitoring and responding to security incidents, and disclose the number of data breaches, in line with international standards. It has opportunities to make a high-level commitment to child online safety, including by participating in external initiatives, and developing a mechanism to report on online harm to children.

PCCW lags its peers in open, inclusive and ethical innovation. Apart from the fact that it shares open source project code through GitHub, there is little evidence of PCCW’s commitment to open source and standards, support for tech start-up ecosystems or sustainability research. The company does not report diversity metrics such as the proportion of women working in technical roles or its research and development (R&D) locations. No evidence was found that the company applies ethical principles in its R&D activities. PCCW has an opportunity to enhance its activities and disclosure in all these areas.