SINGAPORE — The bickering between SingTel and StarHub appears to have abated for now, with both telcos adopting a more conciliatory tone a day after their spat over cross-carriage orders for the English Premier League (EPL) threatened to deprive football fans of a chance to watch the opening matches live on Saturday.

Both companies yesterday pledged to double their efforts to ensure that customers will be able to catch the first match of the 2013/14 season — Liverpool vs Stoke City at 7.45pm — on their StarHub set-top boxes in time.

The telcos have also extended the deadline for the EPL cross-carriage service from Monday to 4pm tomorrow to allow for last-minute customer sign-ups.

A SingTel spokesperson said yesterday: “We are pleased to announce that we have doubled our efforts to ensure that football fans in Singapore will be able to catch every single match of the new EPL season. We are fully committed to ensuring the best possible experience for all football fans and look forward to enjoying an excitement-packed season with everyone.”

While StarHub offered a similar assurance, Ms Lin Shu Fen, its Head of Home Solutions, also issued a note of caution to its pay-TV rival. “Even though the cross-carriage regime allows us five working days to process all cross-carriage orders, we are ready to deploy more resources to help those who choose to catch EPL cross-carried on StarHub TV to have their channels activated in time … as long as we receive from our competitor the valid cross-carriage provisioning orders by 7pm, Aug 15,” she said.

The disagreement between both companies had started on Monday, with StarHub accusing its rival of compromising the interest of EPL fans by not delivering the provisioning orders despite SingTel starting sales on Aug 1.

SingTel responded by saying that it had sent the orders by the agreed Aug 12 deadline, five days before the start of the season. This, in turn, was disputed by StarHub.

The development is the latest in an ongoing tussle between both telcos, which have been trying to draw customers with their respective rebate plans after SingTel lost its appeal last month to avoid sharing exclusive EPL broadcast rights with StarHub for the next three seasons.

Football fans were relieved to hear that the disagreement had been resolved. Engineer Aaron Ong, for one, was happy with the S$30 rebate offered by StarHub.

“But the public spat between the two service providers is worrying as it shows that they are not working hand-in-hand to deliver a smooth service experience to their customers,” he said.

Others like Mr Royston Jalleh, 50, found little comfort in the assurances issued by SingTel and StarHub.

“It is a case of too little, too late ... Customers are kept in the dark on so many things, and the two operators are constantly making changes in their offerings,” said the events company director.”

Mr Clement Teo, a senior analyst with Forrester Research, welcomed the news.

“The spat proved to be unnecessary in the end. I had always expected SingTel and StarHub to work out a solution to ensure that they will not upset the public, as it is too much of a risk for both their reputations,” he said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ADELENE WONG