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Tag: Singtel

  • Singtel and Globe launch Tustwave MSS in Philippines

    Singtel and Globe launch Tustwave MSS in Philippines

    Singapore’s Singtel is bringing its Trustwave portfolio of managed security services to the Philippines, in collaboration with Globe Telecom.

    Under the collaboration, Globe is providing Trustwave’s services through its advanced security operations center (ASOC) in Manila, a new facility operated by Singtel’s Trustwave subsidiary.

    Globe’s ASOC will combine threat intelligence from Globe with global threat visibility from the global network of nine Trustwave ASOCs.

    The services will be supported by an ecosystem of global cyber security providers including Palo Alto Networks, FireEye and Arbor Networks.

    Singtel acquired a 98% stake in Trustwave for $810 million in a deal announced in 2015. In December that year, Singtel and Globe also signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen Globe’s cyber security capabilities.

    Singtel and its managed security services business unit Trustwave also recently expanded their collaboration with Palo Alto to bring managed security services to multi-national businesses and government agencies, and the new agreement extends Singtel and Trustwave’s partnership.

    “As the leading cyber security services provider in the region, our deep global capabilities allow Trustwave Managed Security Services to monitor, assess and defend our customers’ operations round-the-clock against cyber attacks,” Singtel CEO group enterprise and Trustwave chairman Bill Chang said.

    “The launch of Trustwave Managed Security Services is timely as it complements the Philippine government’s National Cybersecurity Plan 2022.”

    The government’s plan is aimed at safeguarding the Philippines’ critical information structures, as well as governments, businesses of any size and all citizens using the internet.

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  • Singtel announces tie-up with polytechnics to help F&B businesses go digital

    Singtel announces tie-up with polytechnics to help F&B businesses go digital

    Singtel has announced a new initiative with the two Singapore-based polytechnics — Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and Singapore Polytechnic (SP) — in Singapore to help F&B and retail businesses go digital.

    First, it will collaborate with the NYP – Singapore Institute of Retail Studies (SIRS) to help these SMEs hire digital professionals who will offer their expertise in e-commerce, retail analytics and digital marketing solutions such as SEO and Search Engine Marketing.

    These digital professionals will comprise of professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) who have been re-skilled.

    SMEs which sign up for this scheme will be able to claim up to 90 per cent in government subsidies.

    In addition, they can also seek additional support on social media marketing, online merchandising and analysis of online consumers from students and lecturers at the NYP’s Customer Experience and Analytics Centre.

    Next, Singtel will work with an integrated team of business, IT and communication students from SP to help F&B owners showcase their offerings on the 99% SME website — a portal set up by DBS and Singtel in 2015 which provides digital tools and resources to SMEs to boost productivity.

    Additionally, the SP students will help these businesses adopt Singtel’s Connected Restaurant solution. This solution offers an online reservation and pick up service.

    SP students will also offer recommendations and develop a suite of solutions to boost businesses’ products and digital and marketing capabilities.

    “Through the 99% SME movement, our collaboration with Nanyang Polytechnic and the Singapore Institute of Retail Studies are three-fold. First, it helps SMEs improve productivity, reduce costs, gain new revenue and scale their businesses,” said Andrew Lim, Managing Director, Business Group, Group Enterprise at Singtel, in an official press statement.

    “Second, PMETs are being re-skilled and re-employed while using their skills to help SMEs in their digital journey. Third, the students will acquire deep skills and develop entrepreneurial spirit, which prime them for their career development in the digital field.”

    Last week, Singtel and Lazada announced the launch of 99% SME e-marketplace – a dedicated portal hosted on Lazada Singapore’s website for SMEs to advertise their offerings and tap on a wider online customer base.

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  • Singtel working with Ericsson to build shared IoT ecosystem

    Singtel working with Ericsson to build shared IoT ecosystem

    Singtel and Ericsson are using Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona to conduct a joint demonstration of their Assured+ integrated IoT platform.

    The companies are working to co-create a shared IoT ecosystem for operators, networks and devices.

    The jointly-developed Assured+ will support IoT applications including elder care, connected cars and other IoT applications focused on providing connected life management for consumers.

    It aims to address industry challenges associated with a fragmented IoT market, whereby most devices developed today are place-centric and closed.

    “In order to realise the full potential of IoT and offer our customers the best user experience, we need to ensure collaboration between people, devices and networks,” SingTel CEO consumer Singapore Yuen Kuan Moon said.

    “Singtel believes an open ecosystem and the Assured+ solution will enable us to achieve these aims. By integrating standalone applications into one solution, Assured+ will bring convenience to our customers and also pave the way for more IoT solutions, such as smart home, to be launched in a seamless manner.”

    Ericsson has projected in its latest Mobility Report that there will be 18 billion IoT related devices by 2022.

    US operator AT&T has separately forged a long term agreement with members of the Bridge Alliance mobile operator group aimed at extending connected car initiatives into new territories.

    The two organizations will work to grow the number of connected cars on the road in territories covered by Bridge Alliance members, which spans the Asia-Pacific and MEA regions.

    The agreement sets forth a framework to extend the geographic coverage AT&T will be able to provide to automotive manufacturers for their infotainment and other offerings.

    Bridge Alliance members will meanwhile be able to access solutions like Wi-Fi hotspots, internet radio and live traffic for car makers to implement.

    “Our collaboration with AT&T is based on the alignment and integration of processes,

    platforms and propositions. This presents exciting possibilities for the automotive industry,

    helping to accelerate the delivery of cutting-edge connected car solutions in our markets,” Bridge Alliance CEO Eileen Tan said.

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  • Singtel Q3 profit grows 2% to $686.6m

    Singtel Q3 profit grows 2% to $686.6m

    Singapore’s Singtel grew its net profit for its fiscal third quarter by 2% to S$973 million ($686.6 million) in the face of declining operating revenue.

    Revenue fell 2% to S$4.41 billion as a result of a regulator-mandated reduction in mobile termination rates in Australia, the home market of Singtel’s wholly-owned subsidiary Optus.

    The reduction led to a 10% decline in group consumer revenue from Australia to A$1.81 billion ($1.38 billion), but consumer revenue from Singapore grew 4% for the quarter to S$657 million, as home services revenue increased by 7%.

    Group enterprise revenue was mostly flat at S$1.65 billion, with revenue from cybersecurity up 10% to S$113 million. Group digital life revenue meanwhile grew 22% to S$167 million, driven by a strong performance from digital marketing arm Amobee.

    Singtel’s share of pre-tax earnings from its regional mobile associates meanwhile grew 2% – or 0.6% in constant currency – to S$660 million. Indonesia’s Telkomsel delivered a strong performance with pre-tax profits up 31%, but Bhari Airtel’s pre-tax profits fell 27% due to the ongoing price war in India.

    Thailand’s AIS likewise saw its pretax profit decline by 28% due to spectrum and financing costs, reducing its contribution to S$89 million. The Philippines’ Globe’s contribution grew 18% to S$66 million.

    This quarter also included contribution from the company’s new 21% stake in Intouch, acquired in November. Intouch contributed a pre-tax profit of S$4 million.

    “This is a resilient set of results. We have managed to hold good ground against the backdrop of a slowing Singapore economy and more challenging business environment all around,” Singtel group CEO Chua Sock Koong commented.

    “While there are concerns of a global economic slowdown, the growth story in the developing markets where we are invested remains compelling as mobile data usage continued to grow across all our mobile associates.”

    The Singtel group’s total mobile customer base across its operations and those of its affiliates meanwhile grew another 2% during the quarter to 640 million.

  • Singtel launches 450Mbps LTE-A nationwide

    Singtel launches 450Mbps LTE-A nationwide

    Singtel has announced the nationwide deployment of its 450Mbps LTE-Advanced service as part of the operator’s journey to 5G.

    The company has upgraded its LTE network in Singapore to support the pre-5G technology 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (256 QAM).

    The technology is designed to increase the number of unique waveform shapes to allow the carriage of up to a third more data, as well as increased spectral efficiency.

    Singtel will make the 450Mbps service available to all its 4G customers with compatible devices at no extra cost.

    Customers with Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones can take advantage of the faster speeds already, and Samsung plans to release a software update to also support the LG V20. More compatible smartphone models are expected to reach the market early this year.

    “Singtel is investing ahead to deliver faster speeds and wider connections with the steady deployment of innovative technologies on our live network,” Singtel CEO consumer Singapore Yuen Kuan Moon said.

    “With more customers consuming and sharing mobile videos, 450Mbps speeds will enable them to download movies in a flash and give them a better entertainment experience while on the go.”

    Singtel also announced it teamed up with Ericsson to demonstrate download speeds of 1Gbps in a live 4G network pilot at two sites. The speed was achieved by combining 256 QAM with 4×4 MIMO and tri-carrier aggregation technologies.

    The operator plans to roll out 4×4 MIMO technology on its network from next year. The first compatible devices are expected to be ready for launch by the end of 2017.

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  • IMDA investigating Singtel broadband outage

    IMDA investigating Singtel broadband outage

    Singapore’s Infocomm and Media Development Authority (IMDA) is investigating Singtel over a recent nearly 24-hour broadband outage islandwide.

    Singtel announced the outage commenced at around 8:45am on Saturday and services were fully restored at 8:25am on Sunday, although some customers were still reporting connection problems.

    The operator said on social media that its engineers are still tracing the cause of the outage, which was associated with servers being unable to assign IP addresses to customers’ modems. TV, fixed phone and mobile services remained unaffected.

    Engineers have so far ruled out a DDoS attack, indicating that the company did not face a Mirai-linked attack of the kind that left a significant portion of customers of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom without services late last month.

    Singtel announced it will provide affected broadband customers with a 10% discount on their month’s bill, and the company will waive mobile data charges accrued over the weekend for its joint broadband and mobile subscribers.

    In a statement, the IMDA said the regulator takes service outages seriously and will be investigating both the cause of the incident and the service recovery measures taken by Singtel.

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  • Singtel launches Hooq OTT movie and TV services

    Singtel launches Hooq OTT movie and TV services

    Singtel has launched over-the-top (OTT) movie and TV service Hooq to its customers in Singapore, 22 months after the company announced the joint venture with Sony and Warner Bros.

    Hooq has been available for some time as a rival to Netflix via Singtel associates in the Philippines, Thailand, India and Indonesia, but it is now being launched in Singapore to Singtel’s prepaid, postpaid and broadband customers as part of bundled service packages.

    Hooq CEO Peter Bithos said that the service would provide an “ad-free freemium video-on-demand service with the largest catalogue of Hollywood, Asian and kids’ content”. The service has over 20,000 titles in its catalogue, available in Singapore for S$8.98 (US $6.29) a month, “the price of a movie ticket”, said Bithos.

    This is about twice the rate that Hooq charges customers of Globe Telecom in the Philippines, Telkomsel in Indonesia, AIS in Thailand or Airtel in India, where prices range from the local equivalent of $2.99 a month to $3.63.

    Hooq announced in March 2016, the first anniversary of its service launch in the Philippines, that it then reached 100,000 customers. No further figures are available. The five countries where the service is available now have a combined population of 1.6 billion, though the service can only be bought via packages through Airtel, AIS, Globe, Singtel and Telkomsel.

    Goh Seow Eng, Singtel’s managing director of home, consumer, said: “Singtel is always keen to expand our content offerings to enhance our customers’ entertainment experience. They will be pleased with Hooq’s vast selection of Hollywood hits, as well as ethnic movies and TV dramas. As an OTT video service, Hooq is a good complement to our pay TV product, as it allows us to offer an even wider breadth of content over multiple screens – mobile devices, computers and televisions.”

    Hooq does not offer live streaming TV services. At launch, Hooq said that it planned to offer movies such as Spider-Man and Harry Potter and TV series such as Friends and Gossip Girl, as well as Indian, Chinese, Thai, Filipino, Indonesian, Korean and Japanese movies and TV series.

    Singtel is a significant shareholder in Airtel, AIS, Globe and Telkomsel. Hooq is not available via Singtel’s Optus subsidiary in Australia, nor via Airtel’s African operations. Singtel and Airtel are increasingly working together on enterprise services.

     

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  • Singtel appoints Mark Chong group CTO

    Singtel appoints Mark Chong group CTO

    Singtel has made two key appointments to strengthen its management team as the Singapore-based telco continues its multi-year transformation.

    Current CEO International Mark Chong (pictured) will take up the role of group chief technology officer, with Arthur Lang taking over his role, effective April 1, 2017.

    Chong will replace Tay Soo Meng, who is set to retire at the end of the financial year after serving Singtel for almost 50 years. Tay will take on an advisory role, the company said.

    In his new role, Chong will lead technology strategy and innovations across the group. Chong, a Singtel veteran of over 20 years, has held various key leadership positions, most notably EVP Networks in Singapore and COO of AIS in Thailand.

    Lang joins Singtel from CapitaLand Limited, where he was group chief financial officer for more than five years.  He will join the group in January with the task of growing Singtel’s regional associates across India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

    Commenting on the appointments, Singtel Group CEO Chua Sock Koong said, “Given our global aspirations and a fast evolving business and technology landscape, we are reinforcing our leadership team as we prime our enterprise for our next phase of growth.”

    Both Chong and Lang, together with Samba Natarajan, CEO Group Digital Life, will join Singtel’s management committee, which oversees strategic direction and execution for the group.

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  • Singtel expands ReadyRoam to 26 countries

    Singtel expands ReadyRoam to 26 countries

    Singtel has expanded its ReadyRoam mobile data roaming service to cover multi-destination roaming across 26 countries in Asia, Europe and North America.

    The ReadyRoam 1GB for 30 days service will allow customers to use the same pool of data while traveling between any of the supported countries.

    The base service supports roaming between 11 Asian markets – China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand – for S$20 ($14).

    For customers traveling further afield, ReadyRoam USA and Europe supports roaming to the above countries, as well as Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA.

    Excess usage will be charged at S$0.019 per MB or S$0.034 per MB depending on a customer’s plan.

    “It’s the holiday season and many of our customers and their families will be traveling,” Singtel VP of mobile marketing consumer Singapore Diana Chen said.

    “Our enhanced ReadyRoam 1GB for 30 days will allow them the convenience of remaining contactable via their Singtel SIM card number while roaming seamlessly across multiple destinations.”

  • Singtel Q2 revenue falls 2.3%

    Singtel Q2 revenue falls 2.3%

    Singtel has reported a 2.3% decrease in group revenue for its fiscal second quarter to S$4.08 billion (2.89 billion), as the company felt the impact of regulatory changes in Australia.

    Australian competition regulator ACCC’s decision last year to cut termination rates from 3.6 to 1.7 cents per minute impacted the performance of Singtel’s wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Optus. Excluding this impact, revenue would have grown 2% to S$4.28 billion.

    The impact of the rate cut contributed to Singtel reporting an 8% decline in its group consumer revenue, covering both Singapore and Australia. In Singapore, revenue fell 3% due largely to lower handset sales and a rise in penetration of lower-priced Android handsets.

    Group enterprise revenue by contrast grew 5% on the back of strong demand for cyber security and international data services.

    Net profit fell 6% year-on-year to S$972 million, due to exceptional gains recorded by Indian mobile affiliate Airtel in the previous corresponding quarter.

    Underlying net profit by comparison was stable for the quarter and up 3% for the first half of the financial year.

    Regional mobile associates’ pre-tax profit contributions grew 7% to S$679 million as a result of strong operating results from Airtel and Indonesia’s Telkomsel. The latter’s pre-tax profit jumped 22% as it reaped the results of investments in its voice, data and digital businesses.

    The group’s total customer base – including its mobile affiliates – grew 3% to 629 million subscribers.

    Singtel is currently projecting a low single digit decline in group operating revenue but stable ebitda for the full year.

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  • Singtel expands MSS alliance with Akamai

    Singtel expands MSS alliance with Akamai

    Singtel announced it has expended its alliance with Akamai by becoming the world’s first telco provider to have its advanced security operations centre staff certified to deliver Akamai managed security services.

    The two companies teamed up last month to offer DDoS mitigation services based on Akamai’s Intelligent Platform to enterprises across APAC.

    Now this alliance has been expanded, with Singtel’s ASOC staff trained and certified to deliver professional managed and security services for Akamai’s web security portfolio in the region.

    Singtel is launching the capability for Singapore enterprises first before expanding it to other regional APAC markets.

    “This partnership augments our award-winning Managed Security Services by integrating our ASOC in Singapore with Akamai’s best-in-class cyber security solutions,” Singtel Group Enterprise managing director for cyber security William Woo said.

    “The partnership further strengthens our existing relationship with Akamai, taking it to a new level of collaboration to reinforce Singapore as a safe business hub, and the Asia Pacific as a region which is conducive for doing business.”

    Singtel operates a network of eight security operations centers across Asia, Europe and the US, including its advanced security operations center in Singapore.

  • Singtel expands collaboration with Palo Alto

    Singtel expands collaboration with Palo Alto

    Singtel and Australian subsidiary Optus have expanded their respective managed security services portfolios with a managed advanced threat protection service using Palo Alto’s security platform.

    The new services are designed to monitor, isolate and prevent suspicious applications from breaching an organization’s networks or endpoint devices, and to provide advanced threat intelligence capabilities for enterprise customers.

    Singtel’s managed security services business unit Trustwave provides services through a global network of eight security operations centers, integrated with Singtel’s Global Threat Intelligence.

    Singtel employs 2,000 security professionals worldwide, including its SpiderLabs cyber response team.

    “As a leading global Managed Security Services Provider, we are committed to strengthening our capabilities to protect organisations against sophisticated, evolving cyber threats. Through our collaboration with Palo Alto Networks, we have developed an innovative cyber security service which takes a holistic and preventive approach towards cyber threats,” Singtel CEO group enterprise Bill Chang said.

    “Together with our Trustwave managed security service, the trained cyber security experts at our Advanced Security Operations Centre can forestall cyber attacks and use the information of any neutralised malware to update our global threat intelligence to benefit other regions.”

    Optus’ enterprise unit Optus Business meanwhile plans to launch its own managed advanced threat protection services over the Palo Alto platform.

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  • Singtel launches triple mobile data add-on

    Singtel launches triple mobile data add-on

    Singtel has announced a new mobile data add-on allowing customers to triple their mobile data allocations for a flat fee.

    The new DataX3 addon will be available to Singtel’s Combo Plan customers for S$9.90 per month. Combo Plans offer base data allocations ranging from 2GB to 12GB.

    It joins the ComboX2 addon, which launched earlier this year and allows customers to double their allocations for S$5.90 per month.

    Singtel has also launched WiFi calling for all Singtel mobile postpaid customers. The service is available without the use of an app, and offers seamless WiFi to 4G handover.

    The service is being made available at no additional cost. At launch, the service is available on compatible iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Sony Xperia smartphone models.

    “WiFi Calling is a network innovation which offers added convenience and an enhanced mobile experience to customers. Our customers can now have mobile coverage even in difficult to reach places such as basements and windowless rooms, as long as there is a WiFi signal,” Singtel CEO consumer Singapore Yuen Kuan Moon said.

    “This service extends our extensive mobile network to cover a wider footprint and complements our ongoing efforts in delivering the fastest and widest 4G service in Singapore.”

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  • Singtel extends free WiFi offer to fiber subscribers

    Singtel extends free WiFi offer to fiber subscribers

    Singtel has revealed plans to extend its free unlimited out-of-home WiFi offer to new and existing fiber broadband customers.

    The operator has been providing Singtel WiFi services for free for the operator’s mobile customers, and has decided to expand access to the service based on its popularity with mobile subscribers.

    Fiber broadband subscribers will be eligible for unlimited data usage at Singtel’s more than 900 WiFi hotspots island-wide. The company said the unlimited usage offer will last until the end of September 2017.

    Customers will be able to access the network on any WiFi-enabled device. After a one-time activation the service offers seamless logins at all WiFi hotspots.

    Singtel asserts that its WiFi network offers five times faster speeds compared to conventional WiFi services. Hotspots have been deployed across the island, including in MRT public transport stations and McDonald’s restaurants.

    “We are pleased to offer our fiber broadband customers extra value on their plans and affordable options to stay connected,” Singtel managing director of home consumer Singapore Goh Seow Eng said.

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  • Singtel interested in MobiFone privatization

    Singtel interested in MobiFone privatization

    Singtel has joined the ranks of operators interested in becoming the strategic partner of Vietnamese operator MobiFone.

    Singtel’s VP for business development Oliver Foo met with deputy ICT minister Pham Hong Hai recently to discuss a possible investment in the venture.

    The Vietnamese government plans to privatize the currently state-owned operator MobiFone, and is seeking a foreign operator interested in participating in the privatization. Companies including Norway’s Telenor, Sweden’s Comviq and Australia’s Telstra have previously expressed an interest.

    Now Singtel has also indicated it may want to participate in the opening up of the operator to private investors.

    MobiFone has an estimated brand value of $539 million. The company jointly controls the majority of Vietnam’s telecoms market together with fellow state-owned operator VinaPhone and military-run Viettel.

    But the government has not yet announced its plans for the privatization of MobiFone.

    MobiFone recently contracted Ciena to build a 300Gbps backbone networkspanning more than 1,400km across the country.

    Singtel has meanwhile been expanding its regional operations, having recently announced plans to indirectly increase its stakes in Thai mobile operator AIS and India’s Bharti Airtel.