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No plans to charge customers separately for OTT services: SingTel

SINGAPORE — Telco SingTel has said it does not plan to charge customers separately for the use of over-the-top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp.

SINGAPORE — Telco SingTel has said it does not plan to charge customers separately for the use of over-the-top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp.

A SingTel spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia that its group Chief Executive Chua Sock Koong had called on regulators to allow telcos to charge OTT players for using its networks, and not consumers.

Ms Chua was speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this week and she referred to SingTel’s subsidiary Optus. SingTel invested almost S$1 billion in Australia’s second largest provider of telco services last year.

Ms Chua warned that these investments would be reduced unless regulators allowed telco operators to charge OTT rivals like WhatsApp for using their network.

WhatsApp provides free messaging service to its 450 million users worldwide.

The growing popularity of such apps has cut revenues from SMS services and phone calls.

In its statement today (Feb 27), SingTel said it recognises that OTT services such as WhatsApp are popular communication tools with subscribers and it aims to be the preferred network partner of OTT service providers. CHANNEL NEWSASIA

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