SingTel to launch 4G service - Channel NewsAsia

SingTel to launch 4G service - Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE: SingTel is moving into fourth generation mobile broadband Internet services. The company said it is launching these services in Singapore for both retail and corporate customers.

The service will be launched on Thursday.

SingTel will use the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, which allows mobile Internet users to experience speeds of up to 75 megabits per second, or over three times faster than current 3G technology using HSPA technology.

This will also be the first time that the technology will be available to retail consumers. M1 had launched a similar service in June, but only for corporate customers.

The offering marks another milestone in Singapore's adoption of the new telecommunications standard.

Mr Yuen Kuan Moon, executive vice president of Digital Consumer with SingTel, said: "With higher bandwidth on mobile 4G services, we can now introduce a lot of new value added services that were previously only available on our fixed fibre network.

"For example, all the media sharing, all the video chats, which were previously only available to fixed broadband because of the high bandwidth requirement, now has become [available on mobile devices] with the LTE 4G mobile network."

The LTE service is currently only available through the use of USB dongle modems, which will mainly target laptop users surfing the Internet as there are no devices on the Singapore market at the moment that support 4G technology.

SingTel's service is priced at S$69.90 per month and is available mainly in the financial district and selected areas, for now.

It aims to expand coverage to 80 per cent of Singapore by end 2012, and 95 per cent by end 2013. It is also cutting down on the data usage bundled on its LTE plans to 10 gigabytes (GB), from the 50GB it offered in its 3G plans.

SingTel said this will help it maintain better standards of services, and it would be fairer to charge heavier users more through tiered plans in future. It added that its studies revealed nine in 10 of its mobile broadband subscribers had data usage habits of less than 10GB per month.

Experts believe that with current service offerings already meeting consumers' needs adequately, there will be little motivation for consumers to take up the more expensive plans.

Jayesh Easwaramony, vice president of ICT Practice with Frost & Sullivan, said: "Even if you look at the history of networks, even 3G took a lot of time for adoption. So for a new generation of technology like 4G, people in the initial days don't see a need for the high-end speeds and telcos cannot drive the content on their own.

"You need other companies to create the applications, the devices. And I think one of the big stumbling blocks will still be the devices and the lack of very high bandwidth applications which will upset the status quo that the consumers are used to with the current technology."

4G-capable handsets are expected to be launched in Singapore as early as the first quarter of 2012.

One of the first 4G enabled handsets being anticipated for the Singapore market is Samsung's GALAXY S II LTE.

Mr Winston Goh, Samsung's product marketing manager (telecommunications), said: "Samsung is working in collaboration with our local partners to ensure that we conduct field and technical testing on the networks, as part of standard procedures to ensure an optimal experience for our customers."

Rival telcos M1 and StarHub said they expect to launch their LTE services in the second half of next year when their networks are more widely ready and when more devices are likely to enter the market.

-CNA/ac