Wireless Federation

Mobile and MaxOnline hubbers are set to enjoy even greater benefits as StarHub launches ‘Home Zone’, the world’s first commercially-available 3G femtocell service. 3G femtocell is a portable cellular access device that connects a user’s 3G mobile phone directly to a MaxOnline-enabled router in the home so that users can make voice and video calls and send SMS over StarHub’s cable network from their mobile phones.

StarHub is making all local outgoing voice, video calls and SMS free for customers using the ‘Home Zone’ service, ensuring that users, who make frequent mobile calls and SMS from home, can enjoy significant cost-savings on their mobile phone bills.

“As the operator that frequently delivers new innovations to the Singapore market, we see tremendous potential in the ‘Home Zone’ service which uses the 3G femtocell technology. While services such as Voice-over-IP (VoIP) have been available for some years, these are restricted to VoIP-enabled mobile phones. The beauty of the 3G femtocell technology is that all 3G-enabled phones are supported and customers do not need to purchase special handsets to take advantage of it,” said Mr Anil Nihalani, Head of Mobile and Communications, StarHub.

‘Home Zone’ supports all 3G mobile usage. While all outgoing local voice calls, video calls and SMS are free - MMS, IDD calls, mobile downloads, mobile surfing and other GPRS activities conducted over the mobile device will be charged at standard published rates. StarHub mobile customers on eligible plans can even make Free IDD 018 calls to 18 destinations using the ‘Home Zone’ service. Local call charges will however still apply.

As an added bonus, besides his/her own mobile number, the subscriber can nominate up to three other StarHub mobile numbers to a white-list that will be recognised by the ‘Home Zone’ service. This means that up to four StarHub 3G mobile users can call out simultaneously over a single ‘Home Zone’ connection, each of the callers being able to enjoy the same benefits.

Mr Nihalani said, “The ‘Home Zone’ service demonstrates the true benefits of hubbing with StarHub. By extending the ability to use the ‘Home Zone’ service to immediate family members, hubbing families who are our 3G mobile and MaxOnline customers, will be able to get more out of it with better cost-savings and convenience.”

The ‘Home Zone’ VAS is offered at a monthly subscription of $30 (without GST). However, customers who subscribe to the VAS from now till 31 December 2008 can enjoy a special 50% discount for 12 months. The ‘Home Zone’ device will be offered on loan free of charge to ‘Home Zone’ users.

About StarHub

StarHub is Singapore’s fully-integrated info-communication company, offering a full range of information, communications and entertainment services for both consumer and corporate markets. StarHub operates Singapore’s fastest two-way 3.5G mobile network that delivers up to 14.4 Mbps for downlink (with HSPA+ coming soon) to complement its nation-wide GSM network, and an island-wide HFC network that delivers multi-channel cable TV services (including High Definition Television and on-demand services) as well as ultra-high speed residential broadband services. StarHub also operates an extensive fixed business network that provides a wide range of data, voice and wholesale services.

For more information please visit www.starhub.com

About Wireless Federation

Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.

For more information please visit www.wirelessfederation.com

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Informa Telecoms & Media revealed that the  number of femtocells deployed worldwide is predicted to surpass 40 million by 2013, a rollout that could generate savings of $5 billion for operators, provided they plan carefully. Analyst suggests that 2013 will be the year of the femtocell. Since femtocells are making use of the customer’s existing broadband connection, inturn generating cost savings of billions of dollars.

According to Informa, mobile operators would theoretically have to invest $13.8 billion in their macro networks in order to match the traffic carrying capability of the 22 million femtocells deployed in 2013. Taking into account the fact that operators already have a certain amount of capacity redundancy in their networks, enough to handle around 33% of the required extra capacity, this sum is likely to be closer to $9 billion.

Anayst said that “Operators will have to invest a substantial amount of money if they want femtocell services to gain popularity.” Analyst also warned mobile operators selling femtocells in a sporadic fashion, via their usual channels. In addition to making it difficult to manage the femtocell access points and related infrastructure, most importantly, this would mean the operator would not be able to make any capex or opex savings,” analyst further said. For the effective substitution of macro network capacity they must be deployed in clusters, Informa persists.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News