Not to be outdone by its rival, StarHub, which has recently launched a Wireless
Broadband Hub covering an area of 180,000 square meters (a size equivalent to 28
international soccer fields) at the Suntec City building (StarHub
Launches Singapore’s Largest Wireless ‘Hotzone’), Singapore
Telecommunications (SingTel) has launched its own version of wireless hotspots
which have almost the entire Singapore covered.
This means that more than 300,000 SingNet users and more than a million
SingTel Mobile’s postpaid customers are now able to access the Internet
wirelessly at speeds of up to 512 kilo bits per second (Kbps) in more than 100
outdoor surf zones in Singapore.
Each of these zones will be marked with a SingTel ‘Wireless Surf Zone’ sign
and can be found in the central business district as well as suburd areas,
Starbucks cafes, Burger King outlets, Shangri-La Hotel, country clubs and
various community clubs among others. If unsure, SingTel Mobile customers can
easily locate the nearest wireless surf zone by simply keying in *624 on their
phones.
There is no monthly subscription fee to the service. SingNet dial-up and
broadband customers and SingTel Mobile postpaid customers need only to pay for
what they use and are charged US$0.11 per minute. They can access the service by
using their existing SingNet user IDs or SingTel Mobile General Packet Radio
Service (GPRS) ID (i.e. mobile phone number) and passwords respectively. But
they would need a wireless enabled notebook computer, or a handheld device, that
complies with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11b
standard.
According to the company’s vice president (Consumer Products), Hui Weng
Cheong, SingTel plans to have at least 150 wireless surf zones by the end of the
year. “We will also offer wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure to
other operators and Internet Service Providers on a wholesale basis,” Hui added.
Getting More Broadband Users Onboard
The offerings do not stop with
the wireless zones that cost the group more than US$560,000 in investments.
SingNet Broadband (which has more than 50 percent of the domestic broadband
market share with more than 92,000 broadband ADSL lines) has also launched ‘Home
Wireless Surf’ which enables households a wireless broadband Internet
connectivity anywhere within the home.
As part of its plan to promote the use of pervasive and broadband services,
the service comes with no additional subscription fee and usage charges are
based on the customer’s existing SingNet Broadband price plan. All they need is
an Ethernet modem, an access point and a WLAN card which cost about US$280.
In addition, users can opt for the new Multi-Surf – a service that allows up
to three users (one main plus two Multi-Surf accounts) in the home for
concurrent Internet access using the same ADSL connection without compromising
broadband speeds. Each additional account costs about US$20 per month.
Wireless Services In The Pipeline
SingTel has also lined up a host
of new value-added wireless Internet services for its customers in the months
ahead in a bid to up its mobile and data services profits (which currently forms
48 percent of the groups revenue). These include:
* Prepaid wireless surf service where customers can purchase a selected
amount of Internet surf time and are given a temporary Internet account and
password for use at any wireless surf zone.
* Wireless surf for inbound roamers where roamers can request for a temporary
wireless surf account.
* Wireless broadband roaming arrangements with GRIC and iPASS for both
inbound roamers and SingTel customers traveling overseas.
* Park & Surf service which enables motorists and their passengers to
download information from car parks.
* Wireless printing service that enables users to send documents to selected
shops for printing. They can collect the printed documents later and have the
bill charged to their SingNet or SingTel Mobile account.
Curious about hotspot build out in Singapore?
Join us at the 802.11 Planet Conference
& Expo, Asia 2002, next week, Oct. 2-3 at The Pan Pacific Hotel, Singapore.
