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SingTel rolls out new mobile plans with Wi-Fi

SINGAPORE — SingTel has become the first telecommunications company here to introduce mobile plans bundled with Wi-Fi, a move that industry analysts say is in response to increasingly congested 3G or 4G networks.

SINGAPORE — SingTel has become the first telecommunications company here to introduce mobile plans bundled with Wi-Fi, a move that industry analysts say is in response to increasingly congested 3G or 4G networks.

“It is part of data traffic offloading. Data usage is rising and people are trying to manage the congestion over cellular networks, such as bundling in Wi-Fi to manage data traffic.

“Deploying Wi-Fi is also cheaper for the carriers, as compared with mobile,” said Mr Foong King Yew, vice-president at IT research firm Gartner.

At the unveiling of its new range of mobile plans yesterday, SingTel said its Wi-Fi network — with average speeds of 4Mbps to 10Mbps — will provide connectivity that is five times faster than free public Wi-Fi networks, such as Wireless@SG.

SingTel will offer more than 100 hot spots at 11 locations, including popular shopping malls, once the mobile plans are launched on Aug 19.

Hot spots will also be installed in the busiest underground MRT stations, with the first three — Orchard, City Hall and Raffles Place — to be covered from Aug 22. SingTel added that it would increase the number of hot spots to about 1,000 by next March and double that number a year later.

Here’s the catch: The six new Combo plans will replace the five existing Flexi plans for new and re-contracting customers and three of these new plans will cost S$3 more, compared with the existing ones.

Besides Wi-Fi, the new plans will also offer up to 200 minutes more local talk time and up to 500 more SMSes.

For example, the Flexi Value plan, which costs S$59.90, will now be called Combo 3 and cost S$62.90. Combo 3 will offer an extra 100 minutes of talk time and 300 more SMSes.

Two days earlier, the Land Transport Authority said it would roll out the free Wireless@SG service at the platform level of 28 MRT stations.

On how this may affect SingTel’s take-up rate, its vice-president for consumer marketing Johan Buse said: “Wireless@SG has a different objective. Our Wi-Fi provides best speeds and it’s not so much about providing access everywhere.”

“We have done a lot of market research and listened to consumers. But we believe that with the handset subsidies, these plans will be as attractive as our current tariff plans,” he added.

Although analysts expect other telecommunications companies to follow in SingTel’s footsteps, M1 and StarHub are not showing any signs of doing so. “Customers who wish to offload mobile data have access to the Wireless@SG’s network available at many high-density areas,” said Mr Chua Hian Hou, assistant general manager for corporate communications at M1.

StarHub, on the other hand, said it would continue to enhance its network quality and drive innovation.

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