Retail News CRM

Tag: Singtel

  • 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.”

    Lees ook:

  • 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.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • 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.

  • Singtel sale slide offset by Indonesia, Thai mobile affiliates

    Singtel sale slide offset by Indonesia, Thai mobile affiliates

    Singapore Telecommunications announced a net profit of S$944 million for its first quarter ended June, up 0.3 per cent on the year, mainly due to stronger contributions from its mobile affiliates in Indonesia.

    Singtel’s sales fell 7.1 per cent on the year to S$3.9 billion. Singapore consumer revenue declined by 8.5 per cent to S$558 million. The growth in mobile data use could not fully offset the revenue decline in roaming and voice services in the city-state. The company’s operating revenue in Australia also fell by 15 per cent due to higher mobile service credits from device repayment plans and a weaker Australian dollar.

    Weaker equipment sales also dragged revenue down for both countries. “Equipment sales both in Singapore and Australia showed a decline and that reflects lower re-contracting volumes. There was also a higher take-up of SIM-only plans where they don’t buy the handset from us,” said Chua Sock Koong, group chief executive of Singtel, in a media briefing on Thursday.

    Contributions from Singtel’s other mobile affiliates helped to offset its losses. Indonesian mobile operator Telekomunikasi Indonesia’s profit after tax jumped 31.1 per cent on the year to US$244 million (S$327.78 million), supported by strong growth in voice, data and digital businesses. Thailand’s Advanced Info Service also generated higher contribution for the quarter, a 5.1 per cent increase to US$98 million after tax on the year.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel to lift stakes in AIS, Airtel

    Singtel to lift stakes in AIS, Airtel

    Singtel has confirmed it has arranged to indirectly increase its stake in Thai mobile affiliate AIS, and revealed it will also increase its share in India’s Bharti Airtel.

    The operator announced it has entered a conditional agreement to acquire 21% of Thai operator AIS’ largest shareholder Intouch Holdings from Singtel’s majority shareholder Temasek Holdings, confirming reports from earlier in the week.

    Intouch is AIS’ largest shareholder with a roughly 40% stake, while Singtel owns a 23% stake in AIS.

    Singtel has meanwhile also agreed to acquire a 7.39% stake in Bharti Airtel’s holding company Bharti Telecom, adding to the 39.78% it already owns.

    The acquisitions have a total value of S$2.47 billion ($1.84 billion). Singtel will pay cash, and fund the acquisition through a combination of internal cash, short-term debt and proceeds from a S$1.6 billion placement of new Singtel shares to Temasek. The deal still requires shareholder and regulatory approvals.

    “Singtel has been a strategic partner to both AIS and Airtel for more than 15 years. We have built deep and trusted relationships, worked well together through the years, sharing knowledge and expertise and we have grown together, from strength to strength,” Singtel Group CEO Chu Sock Koong said.

    “Today, they have a combined mobile customer base of more than 380 million across Asia and Africa. This is a unique opportunity for us to deepen our relationships with two great market leaders.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel said to plan to increase stake in AIS

    Singtel said to plan to increase stake in AIS

    Singtel is reportedly in talks regarding indirectly increasing its stake in Thailand’s top mobile operator AIS.

    The operator is negotiating with Temasek Holdings regarding a sale of part of the investment company’s 41% stake in Intouch, a major shareholder in AIS.

    Temasek Holdings is a Singaporean state-owned investment company which holds a 51% majority stake in Singtel. Temasek is also Intouch’s biggest shareholder with a 41% stake, while Intouch itself owns 40% of AIS. Singtel’s stake in AIS is currently 23%.

    Singtel and AIS previously held discussions regarding the Singaporean group increasing its stake in the Thai operator in 2014, but the negotiations were put on hold due to political and economic instability in the nation.

    But Bloomberg’s source stated that the companies involved believe there is renewed opportunity to pursue a deal now that the situation is becoming more stable.

    Singtel’s regional mobile associates are important to the operator’s financial performance. The company’s recently announced first quarter results  show that while the company’s net profit grew just 2%, pre-tax earnings contributions from the company’s regional associates climbed 19%.

    Temasek is meanwhile under pressure to pursue investments with a greater potential for returns after reporting the first decline in its portfolio for seven years during the financial year ending in March.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel Q1 profit grows 2%

    Singtel Q1 profit grows 2%

    Singtel has announced a 2% increase in net profit for the quarter ended in June to S$944 million ($701.5 million), on the back of strong mobile data and cyber security services revenue growth.

    Barring one-off gains in the same quarter last year, profit would have grown 7%, or 9% in constant currency terms.

    But total operating revenue for the quarter fell 7% to S$3.9 billion, largely as a result of mandated cuts to mobile termination rates in Australia, which affected the contributions from wholly-owned subsidiary Optus.

    Group consumer revenue declined 15.6% year-on-year to S$2.19 billion while group enterprise revenue grew 5.1% to S$1.58 billion.

    In Singapore’s consumer market, strong demand for mobile data offset declines in voice, text and roaming revenue. But operating revenue still fell 8.5% to S$558 million. Mobile revenue dipped 1.4% to S$323 million, but fixed broadband revenue was up 3.4% to S$55 million.

    Singtel’s Group Digital Life revenue meanwhile increased 34% due to solid contributions from its ICT subsidiaries. Particularly strong performers included digital marketing arm Amobee and the operator’s Trustwave security-as-a-service unit, which Singtel acquired for $770 million last September.

    Post-tax earnings from the Singtel Group’s regional mobile affiliates meanwhile climbed 19% as a result strong performances from Telkomsel in Indonesia and Bharti Aitel in India.

    The group’s combined mobile customer base grew by 8.2 million during the quarter to 613 million.

    Looking ahead to the full financial year, Singtel currently expects to report a slim 0.3% increase in net profit to S$944 million, but a 7.1% decline in group revenue to S$3.9 billion.

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel Group cues video tilt for regions

    Singtel Group cues video tilt for regions

    Singtel Group has launched “The 5-Min Video Challenge” a joint initiative by associates within the group, comprising Singtel, Optus, AIS, Airtel, Globe and Telkomsel.

    Winning content will be distributed and made accessible to over 600 million customers across the group.

    The short five-minute format is ideal for audiences accustomed to viewing content on mobile devices.

    “A pan-regional competition makes a lot of sense as the power of content is its ability to transcend geographical and language barriers,” said Mark Chong, CEO, International, at Singtel. “Our customers will be able to enjoy access to a rich variety of original content created by the most talented content-makers from the region.”

    The competition will be conducted at two levels – local and regional. Each associate will first invite aspiring or experienced local filmmakers to submit five-minute entries based on the theme “Connecting Lives”.

    The entries will be judged on criteria such as originality of content, storytelling and cinematography. Winning entries from the respective associates’ markets will then be judged at a regional level.

    The grand winner and runner-up will be announced at the grand finals, which will be held in Bangkok, on November 21. Cash prizes of $30,000 and $15,000 will be awarded to the grand winner and runner-up respectively.

    The regional winners will also get the opportunity to promote their videos on each associate’s mobile and video platforms to customers in the group’s markets across Asia, Africa and Australia.

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel, Ericsson complete SEA’s first 5G demo

    Singtel, Ericsson complete SEA’s first 5G demo

    Singtel and Ericsson have completed the first live demonstration of 5G prototype technology, achieving a peak throughput of 27.5Gbps.

    The demonstration used Ericsson’s 5G radio prototypes to showcase the capabilities offered by the new networking technology, which also included demonstrating a latency as low as 2ms.

    At the demonstration, Singtel and Ericsson also showcased the world’s first end-to-end low latency live video streaming over 5G.

    Ericsson and Singel signed an MoU last year to collaborate on testing technology candidates for the 5G standard. Last week, the companies completed a live trial of pre-standard License Assisted Access (LAA) technology over Singtel’s 4G network.

    Singtel group CTO Tay Soo Meng said the collaboration is aimed at ensuring the operator’s customers have access to the latest mobile technologies.

    “We strive to upgrade our networks with cutting-edge enhancements, constantly offering our customers all the possibilities that technology brings. Singapore is at the forefront of the most connected cities in the world and now we want to take it to the next level,” he said.

    “5G is very important to the Singtel Group as it will support advanced communication needs. To ensure the Group continues our technology leadership in the mobile communications domain, we are exploring, studying and trialling pre-5G technologies with Ericsson.”

    The operator is preparing for the anticipated standardization of 5G in 2020 by deploying key pre-5G technologies including carrier aggregation, 256QAM and NB-IoT.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel launches mobile newsstand service

    Singtel launches mobile newsstand service

    Singtel has launched a new service offering subscriptions to digital newspapers and magazines at discount rates, and with unmetered access to their content.

    The Singtel Newsstand service will at launch offer Singapore’s largest newspaper the Straits Times, as well as international publications including the Wall Street Journal, TIME and Fortune Magazine.

    The titles will be offered at discounts of up to 20% off regular rates, and Singtel postpaid customers will be able to access online articles, podcasts and videos from the publications without drawing on their data allowances.

    Singtel said it plans to add other publications including the New York Times, the Economist and the Financial Times in the coming months.

    The operator will also offer postpaid customers the option to sign up for print subscriptions to the publications and be charged via their monthly mobile bill.

    Singtel has partnered with Samsung to offer a free three months subscription to Singapore customers who purchase Samsung devices from Singtel from now until mid next year.

    Singtel vice president of mobile marketing Diana Chen said the new initiative reflects the fact that the operator’s customers are increasingly using their mobile devices to access news and current affairs daily.

    “With Singtel Newsstand, we make premium news content from the world’s top publications more affordable and accessible than ever before,” she said.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel, Ericsson demonstrate LAA on live 4G network

    Singtel, Ericsson demonstrate LAA on live 4G network

    Singtel and Ericsson announced they have completed a live trial of pre-standard License Assisted Access (LAA) technology on Singtel’s network.

    The trial in an office building at Serangoon North involved a 20 MHz block of licensed 1800-MHz spectrum, augmented with 20 MHz in the unlicensed 5-GHz band.

    A stationary live test achieved an LTE LAA throughput of 275 Mbps, while a second test demonstrated LAA’s ability to co-exist with Wi-Fi signals without degrading the Wi-Fi user experience.

    The trial also involved coverage testing to validate the technology’s ability to improve link performance, coverage and medium access control compared to Wi-Fi access points.

    Announcing the results, Singtel said the testing showcases the potential for LAA to improve network capacity for mobile customers, in a market where nearly 85% of mobile traffic is generated indoors.

    Due to the success of the trial the operator plans to progressively deploy LAA technology in Singapore over a two-year period starting in the first half of 2017, as part of efforts to evolve its networks in preparation for the introduction of 5G.

    The company said in the future, customers with LAA-capable handsets will be provided with peak download throughput of up to 450 Mbps.

    “To provide our customers with a superior mobile experience when they are indoors, we are continuing to invest in new technologies that will increase indoor 4G speeds,” Singtel managing director of networks consumer Singapore Tay Yeow Lian said.

    “We are pleased to be the first in Singapore to showcase LAA technology live. This is an integral part of the LTE-Advanced evolution and will bring us one step closer to our 5G goals.”

  • Singtel launches Singapore’s first OTT video portal app

    Singtel launches Singapore’s first OTT video portal app

    Singtel has expanded its media content portfolio with the launch of Singapore’s first OTT video portal app, open to the operator’s postpaid mobile customers.

    The operator’s new Cast portal will offer content from major providers including Viu and Nickelodeon, delivered over Singtel’s nationwide 4G network.

    Cast offers a choice of four content packs – premium, kids, Asian hits and Hallyu – with each priced at S$4.90 ($3.63) per month for a 12-month contract or S$6.90 per month contract-free. Customers can choose to pay an additional S$3 per month for an add-on pack including 1GB of data

    The premium pack offers a range of Korean and Japanese dramas, while the kids pack includes programming from the Nickelodeon and Nick Jr pay TV channels.

    Asian hits include popular movies from Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, while Hallyu offers the most popular Korean entertainment.

    “Our customers are huge fans of entertainment on-the-go and we know that they want greater flexibility with what they watch and also when and how they watch it,” Singtel managing director of home consumer Singapore Goh Seow Eng said.

    “We are forging ahead in the OTT space through more strategic partnerships with strong content providers such as Viu and Nickelodeon. We look forward to partnering more top content providers to offer an ever-growing selection on Cast that will give our customers greater choice and the best entertainment experience.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel teams with SIT to train cybersecurity talent

    Singtel teams with SIT to train cybersecurity talent

    Singtel has announced a new partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) to train cybersecurity talent.

    The work-study program will support SIT students in the areas of Information Security and Software Engineering, which is expected to lead to career pathways such as cyber security R&D, product development, and management, cyber analysis and forensics, operations and cyber architects.

    Singtel country CEO and CEO, Group Enterprise Bill Chang said the undertaking aims to address two critical skills needs locally – the short supply of trained software engineers and the growing worldwide threat posed by cyber threats.

    “The economy is in great need for trained cybersecurity professionals,” he said.

    Under the work-study programs, participating students are trainees of the supporting company. They get to gather meaningful work experiences through industry induction, close mentorship, attachments and capstone projects to deepen industry-relevant skills.

    The students would acquire skills and experience relevant to the needs of the company while the company gains a productive contributor and an avenue to recruit, assess, groom and retain talent.

    Singtel has also worked with the InfoComm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) on the Cyber Security Associates and Technologists Program.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel, Airtel to combine IP VPNs

    Singtel, Airtel to combine IP VPNs

    Singtel and India’s Bharti Airtel have announced a strategic alliance to provide high-speed connectivity to global enterprises through a single IP VPN.

    The operators have combined their infrastructure into one network providing coverage to 325 cities through 370 points of presence in APAC, MEA, Europe and the US. This will form one of the largest IP VPNs worldwide.

    The network will support MPLS and high-bandwidth business applications including unified communications, video conferencing and SDN.

    A single helpdesk and a single integrated operations and maintenance system have been jointly developed to support the combined networking operations.

    “We believe joining forces this way makes total sense. By tapping on one another’s infrastructure assets we enhance each other’s capabilities,” Singtel Group Enterprise managing director of global enterprise business Lim Seng Kong said.

    “With its wide coverage of cities in India, this network paves the way for our international customers to enter into one of the world’s most vibrant economies. Conversely, this partnership also opens the door for Indian companies to expand abroad, supported by Singtel’s high quality IP VPN network in major business cities in Asia, Europe and the US.”

    He said the agreement will allow Singtel to strengthen its lead as the largest IP VPN provider in APAC with domestic data networks in Australia, India and Singapore.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Singtel full-year profit grows 2% despite forex hit

    Singtel full-year profit grows 2% despite forex hit

    Singtel has reported a 2% increase in net profit for the financial year ending in March to S$3.87 billion ($2.81 billion), despite negative foreign exchange movements.

    But operating revenue declined 1.5% to S$16.96 billion, the operator revealed. Excluding the impact of forex fluctuations, net profit would have grown 6% and operating revenue would have risen 4%.

    Earnings growth for the year was driven by a strong performance at Singtel’s regional mobile associates, particularly increased earnings from Indonesia’s Telkomsel. Pre-tax earnings contributions from these associates grew 5% to S$2.6 billion.

    For the fourth quarter, net profit was flat at S$946 million but would have grown 4% in constant currency terms. Regional associates’ pre-tax contribution grew 12%.

    “Mobile data was the bright spot. Our regional markets are now making their respective transitions from mobile telephony to mobile internet and harnessing the benefits of extensive investments in 3G and 4G networks and services,” Singtel Group CEO Chua Sock Koong commented.

    “We worked with our regional associates to navigate this shift from voice to data. In Singapore and Australia, our businesses were the first to launch innovative data add-on plans and zero-rated music services to meet customers’ increasing demands for OTT content services and data allowances, driving further data monetization.”

    Looking ahead to the current financial year, Singtel said that based on current economic forecasts, the operator expects to report a low single digit growth in consolidated revenue.

    Lees ook: