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

SingTel reports a subscriber base of 216 million in financial Q2′08, a rise of 9.6%, adding 121,000 new subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Indonesian associate PT Telkomsel added about 8.1 million subscribers, while Australian unit Optus grew by 182,000 subscribers. The profits of Singapore’s largest operator fell by 12% in Q2′08 as a strengthening local currency hurt the value of earnings from its units abroad.
Its net income for its Q2′08 fell to $577 million, down from $656 million a year earlier.
“Our expansion in the region subjects us to the volatility of the regional currencies,” SingTel Group Chief Executive Chua Sock Koong said. “A stronger Singapore dollar reduces our mobile associates’ earnings.”
SingTel’s stakes in regional operators such as India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd., Indonesia’s PT Telkomsel, the Philippines’ Globe Telecom Inc., Pakistan’s Warid Telecom Ltd., Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd. and Thailand’s Advanced Info Service PCL account for more than half of the company’s profits.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

To meet the rising demand for mobile broadband services, StarHub is increasing its High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) uplink capacity to 5.76Mbps. Its current limit is 1.9Mbps. This will make StarHub the first Asia-Pacific operator to implement a HSUPA network at 5.76Mbps. Its maximum downlink speed is currently 14.4Mbps, although by the second quarter of 2009 it aims to complete the upgrade of the HSPA network to HSPA+ which will facilitate downlink speeds of up to 21Mbps.

Moreover, the operator is also planning to augment the number of base stations on the network to 3,500 to support its roughly 1.8 million mobile customers.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Mobile Number Portability enables mobile users to retain their phone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another. MNP has been introduced and implemented in different ways across the globe. The USP that MNP gives to the mobile phone users is the comfort to retain their contacts and the phone number which is distributed in their business and social circle. A recent study pointed out that having to give up their mobile numbers was the single most reason that subscribers did not want to change their operator despite poor quality of services. The move to introduce and implement MNP will heighten the competition in the telecom industry and will force Mobile operators to offer quality services to the subscribers in order to reduce the churn rate. This will also benefit service providers who will be able to attract customers from other operators by offering attractive value proposition.
Singapore was the first to implement MNP in 1997, followed by Hong Kong in 1999, Australia in 2001, South Korea in 2004, and Taiwan in 2005. Recently, MNP has been introduced in various countries like Malaysia, Macedonia to name a few. However, it continues to pose challenges due to its technical and regulatory complexities.

“We must ensure efficient implementation of MNP & Operators must realize that customer port-out/port-in time is much greater than the time required to buy a new connection/ shift to another operator” Himanshu Jay, Added.

It takes a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 2 hours only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland and even a remarkable 3 minutes in Australia.

The introduction of MNP could result in a significant churn in the telecom market and is likely to negatively impact established players whereas proves to be advantageous for the new entrants. For Instance, Vodafone in Turkey is forecasted to lose some 4% market share to Avea and Turkcell by 2009.

The implementation of MNP tends to face stiff resistance from the operators of the country like India wherein telecom market hasn’t reached the saturation point. MNP can be soon seen in India, Turkey & Romania. In fact, MNP has been effective in October in some cities of India.

For more info on Increase APRU and Reduce CHURN Series, Please contact Christina@WirelessFederation.com

Mobile roaming traiffs of South East Asia anticipated to be halved by early next year. According to Energy, Water and Communications Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor, a reduction was necessary as charges were exceptionally high. “We plan to reduce roaming charges with Singapore first,” he said. Reduction in the roaming fees will trim down the burden on the tens of thousands of Malaysians who commute to Singapore daily. He further said, We do not want them to be paying exceptionally high roaming charges when their workplace (Singapore) is only a few kilometres (miles) away from their homes in (neighbouring) Johor.
Singaporean counterpart Lee Boon Yang had hailed the proposal. Maxis charges 1.50 ringgit (0.43 dollars) per minute for a local registered cell phone user when he uses his phone in Singapore and as high as 9.00 ringgit per minute in Cambodia. Maxis customers are charged about 30 sen per minute for local calls.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

Bharti Airtel has launched it’s calling card services in Singapore and has a target of 10,000 NRI’s in the country. Airtel’s next destination will be Canada.
Presently, the calling card service is operational in USA and UK, where the offerings are 15-30% cheaper than the prevailing call rates there. These calling card can be bought online and used across any mobile and landline numbers.
The services according to the operator will be available to nearly 400,000 NRIs and students in Singapore as a pre-paid option and will allow subscribers in Singapore to make calls to India at 10.5 cents/minute on a toll-free access number. The subscribers can also call other countries, as per the list available on Airtel CallHome website.
In the promotional period, Airtel is providing 70% extra talk time to its subscribers, bringing effective call rates down to 6.2 cents/minute.

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SingTel, largest Asian mobile network operator, signs an exclusive agreement to bundle WorldMate Live™, the industry leading mobile travel service, as a VAS for its postpaid subscribers on September 13, 2008.
“We’re very proud to be working with SingTel, one of the world’s largest, most innovative telecom companies,” said Nadav Gur, CEO of WorldMate. “SingTel’s customers include a demanding business clientele, so this is an ideal pairing of WorldMate Live’s best-of-class services like itinerary management, real-time alerts and last second booking, for the most discriminating of business travelers.”

“As the market leader, SingTel is pleased to offer WorldMate Live, the gold standard in travel services,” said Mr. Quek Peck Leng, chief executive officer of SingTel Mobile and SingTel’s executive vice president of Consumer. “WorldMate Live complements the lifestyles of our customers who are busy executives and frequent travelers, empowering them with the convenience of a personal mobile travel advisor for a stress-free trip.”
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Verzio launches the first ever 3G dual SIM mobile phone, Verzio Duplii, which will be available in Singapore. This phone is for the people who have seperate numbers for work and for personal calls and the device allows them the full functionalities of two SIM cards to be used at the same time, easily and conveniently at a touch of a button.

Ms Lillian Tan, Senior Marketing & Communication Manager of Verzioworld, explains: “There are many benefits of using a phone with dual SIM card capabilities. What differentiate us are the 3G capabilities coupled with dual antenna, dual processor and dual active SIM. There are many other reasons to use a phone with dual SIM cards.

“Users who carry two SIM cards are typically those who need to separate work and personal calls, travellers with a local SIM card and a foreign SIM card, or those who use a 3G SIM card for broadband internet access and a 2.75G SIM for phone calls and messaging or between two operators offering different mobile plans. In fact some people even carry two SIM cards of one operator just for better chances of network coverage in weak signal areas. We understand their needs and thus have launched the Verzio Duplii so that these users have more versatility and choices at their fingertips.”

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

The mobile market in Singapore is characterised by its energy and innovation. Even when growth appears to have slowed somewhat, there is still a considerable effort going into VAS. The market had initially approached the launch of 3G with a degree of caution. As the licences were issued and the networks rolled out, some of the major operators and, to some extent, the government were circumspect about the prospect of next generation of mobiles. However, once the networks were launched and the customers starting signing up (more than 1.8 million by early 2008), there was a marked lift in enthusiasm for 3G.

The energy of the mobile market in Singapore is reflected in the character of its three major operators - SingTel, StarHub and M1. There is strong competition between these three operators. StarHub, which had the lowest market share, has been growing strongly, catching up and passing M1. With the slowing in overall subscriber growth, considerable effort had gone into value-added products and services. All three operators were awarded 3G licences in mid-2001 and launched services in the first half of 2005, having met the mandatory launch of pilot services by end-2004.

Singtel has added 182,000 new subscribers in Q4 of FY08, taking the total to 2.75 million.The company, due to a strong presence in the foreign worker segment, prepaid customers grew 151,000, to 1.34 million.

Singtel is now having 961,000 3G mobile subscribers, representing 68% of its total postpaid base and may start selling Apple iPhone 3G in Singapore, in early September.

StarHub ended June with 1.8 million mobile subscribers, up 10% on the previous quarter.

Notable highlights of the Singapore Mobile market profile include:

• The level of wireless penetration in Singapore will continue to increase over the next several years and it will reach 128.8% in 2010. This implies an increase in the number of total subscribers from 5.8 million in 2008 to 6.4 million in 2010.

• It is expected that the market shares of the three operators in the country - SingTel, Mobile One and StarHub - to remain roughly the same over the next few years. It is predicted that the market shares of SingTel, Mobile One and StarHub to be 41.5%, 26.2% and 32.2% respectively in 2010.

• In 2010, SingTel will enjoy the highest ARPU in Singapore at US$ 46.41 per month while Mobile One will have the lowest ARPU of US$ 29.06 per month.

Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News

According to a media report, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has bought a 60% stake in IT services provider Singapore Computer Systems for $99 million from Green Dot Capital, a unit of state investment firm Temasek Holdings, which is also SingTel’s parent company. This move will prompt a manadatory offer for all shares in Singapore Computer Systems.

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