www.WirelessFederation.com/news: StarHub has awraded a contract to Nokia Siemens Network to expand its mobile network capacity, in the process strengthening its HSPA+ wireless broadband services. According to a media report, the vendor has upped StarHub’s network capacity by implementing a flat network architecture, using its Direct Tunnel solution. Peter Cook, Vice President, integrated network engineering, StarHub, said, ‘Data traffic has increased exponentially over the last two years, and StarHub is now geared to handle the current and future traffic needs of its subscribers. What’s more, there is no need to invest substantial amounts of money to build capacity to handle the increased data throughput. It’s really thanks to this innovative software offering from Nokia Siemens Networks that routes 3G data traffic effectively, improving the user experience while reducing capital and operating expenses.’
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: StarHub has launched a commercial HSPA+ service under the banner MaxMobile Elite. The service offers peak download speeds of 21Mbps across the entire city state and successfully concludes the operator’s rigorous trialing of HSPA+ which started in March 2009.
According to a report, StarHub ended March’09 with a subscriber base of 1.82 million, a market share of 28.37%.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The state owned telcos of India, BSNL and MTNL, have inked an agreement with Conexus Mobile Alliance to enable their subscribers to access roaming facility in 10 Asian countries.
Other partners of Conexus Mobile Alliance in Asia include Hong Kong’s Hutchinson Telecommunications, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Singapore’s StarHub Ltd.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: StarHub, the Singaporean mobile operator, will soon launch the Google Android phone, HTC Touch in the country. StarHub hasn’t yet revealed any pricing details for the handset. Whereas SingTel on the other hand is already offering HTC’s first-generation Android phone called HTC Dream in Australia and Singapore.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: StarHub, the Singapore based mobile operator, has introduced the ‘Happy Treats on every Sunday’ programme for its prepaid subscribers. The programme will be available until 2009-end with a new offer each Sunday. As an initial promotion, subscribers will receive a curry puff for free, by just showing their StarHub mobile card at selected Old Chang Kee outlets.
StarHub is giving away 100,000 curry puffs at 25 selected Old Chang Kee outlets island wide in April.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: StarHub, mobile operator base in Singapore with the largest no. of subscribers, has launched trials of a new 21Mbps (peak theoretical) mobile broadband service based on HSPA+ technology. The public trial will include 100 selected subscribers, as telco is all set to for a commercial launch within the next three months. StarHub ended 2008 with a subscriber base of 1.765 million and holds a market share of 27.85%.
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StarHub has chosen Chinese telecommunications network services provider Huawei Technologies to deploy commercial 3G femtocell network. Huawei said, its femtocell system enables end-users to access high-speed wireless data services indoors such as streaming video, IPTV, video conferencing and mobile broadband. In the new era of network convergence, Femtocells help operators to implement a full-service operation strategy.
“StarHub’s launch of ‘Home Zone’, the world’ s first commercially-available 3G femtocell service, is a significant milestone for the commercial development of the femtocell industry. As the earliest member of Femto Forum, Huawei has been committed to femtocell R&D since 2005 and our focus now is to play an active role in the commercial deployment of this important technology worldwide in partnership with the industry. We are proud to have already played a key role in developing the world’s first commercial 3G femtocell network,” said, Wan Biao, Executive Deputy President of wireless product line at Huawei.
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
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.
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.